A New Start
by Bomahe
Summary: After a unfruitful trip to Konoha to find who's responsible for manipulating him all these years. Yagura learns of Naruto's secret and invites him home. But due to a certain incident, he's forced to pretend to be Naruto's genin teammate.
1. Chapter 1

Yagura's head was hurting. It was as if he had been asleep for years.

Flashes of red eyes, darkness, and back to those red eyes flickered through his mind again and again.

 _Sharingan._

 _Konoha._

 _Uchiha._

He clutched onto his head to try and ground himself. He may not know what was going on, but he knew enough to know that he needed to talk to someone to figure out what happened.

A meeting with the elders later and he was devastated. He couldn't believe he had done any of those things, even under a trance. His first conscious act as Mizukage was to call off the entire bloodline massacre and arrest the councilmen that objected to his new orders.

He himself needed to get away from Hidden Mist.

To clear his head. To create a contingency plan before someone captured him again, to make sure certain orders were ignored and to signal if someone was trying to get him to do further atrocities.

It was a headache, but he knew that it was time to pay the Hokage a visit to uncover what the Uchiha were doing and to create new diplomatic relations. The stronger Mist appeared, the easier it would be to get a peaceful deal with the rebels and unite the village again.

* * *

Sarutobi was quite shocked when he saw who had just knocked on his door. Or the fact that someone finally knocked on his door and didn't just walk in or use the window.

"Mizukage, it's an honour to have you here, but you cannot just show up at my office, this isn't how it works, you need to alert us first."

"I apologize, I didn't want anyone to know I was here," the Mizukage said with a deep bow. I haven't exactly… been in control over myself the last years."

Sarutobi looked up, eyes sharp and assessing. The mist had never shown any interest in diplomatic relations prior to this, to have the Mizukage standing before him like this… Needless to say, Sarutobi was weary. "And why are you telling me this?"

"I was controlled by someone from your village," the Mizukage said, voice soft and lilting, his face deceptively youthful. "An Uchiha, to be precise."

Sarutobi's jaw tightened. "It's impossible."

"I saw it- I saw the sharingan burning through my mind, and no other bloodline has the reputation to do something like that," the Mizukage insisted, pausing a moment before continuing, his voice lower. "The sharingan is rumoured to have quite an effect on people... like me."

"As I said, it's impossible. The Uchiha has been dead for years now."

"Dead? How is that possible? They were your strongest clan."

"I'm sure you know a great deal exterminating blood lines," Sarutobi said, voice a touch too tight, words a touch too accusatory.

The Mizukage's lips thinned and he shifted stances, the barest of movements to indicate defensiveness. "I didn't want to do that and I need your help to stop this so it won't happen again."

"The only Uchiha left in the village is twelve years old, he is not capable of doing anything like that," Sarutobi said, raising his pipe to his mouth with an air of finality. " I want you to leave now."

"There's more to talk about."

"I'm sorry, but your village is too volatile to make any deals with at the moment, leave."

"I need your help," the Mizukage banged his fist into the desk.

"And you've nothing to offer in return, I don't want anything to do with you and your village. You don't get on friendly terms with me by lying to me. Do you need my ANBU to escort you out?"

"I can find the door myself." With that the Mizukage left.

"Tell Danzo to meet me tonight, it's not an suggestion but an order," Sarutobi told the ANBU in the room. Sarutobi really had to remind himself of why he didn't hadn't found a successor yet. Then this conversation could have taken another route.

* * *

Naruto was peeking around the corner as he had just seen an unfamiliar kid. There was no hate in those purple eyes.

 _This is my chance,"_ Naruto thought to himself, _he don't know me, maybe his parents haven't told him to stay away from me yet._ A smile usually reserved for ramen formed on his face.

The boy turn towards him and ducked back behind the wall for cover.

He was going to be a ninja and ninja had to be sneaky.

But how I'm supposed to make friends if he can't see me?

No, being sneaky is stupid.

He peeked back around the corner and saw the boy started to move away from him. Naruto started to panic. He'd have to hurry before it was too late.

What if I say something stupid?

What if he doesn't like me?

"But I'd rather be a person who blurts out random crap and look like an idiot than a coward," he blurted out aloud and ran quickly around the corner and after the boy. In his eagerness, Naruto forgot to slow down and ran directly into the boy, knocking him over in the process.

If Naruto was panicking before, he was definitely now. He had just blew his big chance. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to! I didn't see you! I was- " Naruto tried to excuse himself as the other boy got up again.

The boy wasn't too much taller than himself, and judging by the forehead protector around his waist Naruto was sure he was a genin. Higher ranked ninja tended to be boring and use a normal uniform.

"Who are you?" the other boy asked.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage, believe it!" Naruto answered with a big grin and a thumbs up. "Who are you?"

"I'm Yagura," the other boy answered.

"No family name?" Naruto asked and without waiting for an answer, he continued. "Don't feel bad, I'm not really an Uzumaki, old man Hokage just gave me the name since no one knew who my parents is. He feels quite sad about it as everytime I ask he's just silent and leaves. But I can be your friend."

Naruto grinned. This was definitely going his way.

"I've friends, I'm not a loser," Yagura answered and stuck out his tongue at Naruto.

This was not going Naruto's way.

He needed a solution for this or he'd lose his first friend.

In that moment, he got it, it was so obvious that Naruto felt stupid for not thinking about it before. It was the first thing he should have done. Ramen. Ayame had promised him that if he brought with him a friend she would threat them to ramen. It was a long time ago, but he hadn't had the chance of taking advantage of it yet.

This was the perfect day, making his first friend _and_ free ramen.

"Do you want ramen?" Naruto offered.

"Huh?" Yagura just looked confused.

Not wanting to mess up again by saying something stupid, Naruto grabbed him by his hand and dragged him towards Ichiraku ramen.

* * *

"Hey Naruto, and is that a friend of yours?" she looked towards Yagura, brows drawing together at the unfamiliar face..

"Yeah, this is Yagura," Naruto said. "We just met and he's a genin, y'know?

If the boy besides him made any reaction to his remark, Naruto wouldn't know.

"I believe I made a promise," she said and put a two bowls of ramen in front of the two boys.

"Itadakimasu," Naruto said as usual before eating and Yagura followed suit.

Yagura watched the kid from the corner of his eye. A seemingly nameless orphan wouldn't have any kind of contact with the leader of the village. No, that would be ridiculous- there had to be something behind it.

As long as no one exposed who he was, he could make this trip more beneficial than it currently had been.

"So you're a ninja too?" he asked Naruto, careful to keep his tone inquisitive but not too probing.

"Not yet, but I'm soon graduating from the academy and I'll become the best ninja," Naruto declared through a mouthful of ramen, "Even better than Jiji and the fourth."

"Jiji?" Yagura's brows knitted.

"The Hokage, baka."

Yagura had to fight to hold himself back. He couldn't let himself be insulted by a kid that wasn't even a ninja, he couldn't screw this up. There was something so obviously different about Naruto but he couldn't quite place his finger on it. He just needed to bide his time, discover more before he drew any solid conclusions.

"Are you and the Hokage good friends then?" Yagura asked, trying to sound as though he was in awe. Or anything, really, that would be appropriate for a reaction from a genin.

"Yeah, he visits me each month and gives me money. But I'd wish he comes more often you know. And I talk to him if the ANBU manages to catch me after a prank." Naruto smiled. "But I'm pretty good at running away, so it isn't that often."

In an instant, his mood shifted away from his happy self.

"The villagers don't like me, they act like I'm not there. So I'm pranking them so I'll get noticed." Naruto explained without getting asked. Naruto had heard that you were supposed to share stuff with your friends.

"That's-" Yagura tried to say before getting interrupted by Naruto.

"Can you keep a secret?" Naruto asked, his face clearly more serious now.

Yagura just nodded.

"They think I'm not hearing it, but," Naruto leaned towards him before whispering, "they call me a demon."

Yagura's eyes widen, which made Naruto's stomach tangle in knots, all of a sudden worried that maybe he'd said too much and his newfound friend wouldn't want to be with him Yagura just turned and smiled at him. "Cool."

Who would have thought he would've gotten so lucky to stumble upon the jinchuuriki of Konoha? This situation was even better than what he could've hoped.

All Yagura had to do now was seal the deal, he didn't know what beast was sealed into Naruto, but he knew that Konoha would have kept a strong one for themselves.

"I need to go home soon," Yagura said, letting a frown touch his face before holding out a hand to Naruto. "Do you want to come and visit my home?"

Naruto grabbed without hesitation.

* * *

"Hokage-sama, you called for me."

"Yes, this is about Naruto," Sarutobi looked up, from the papers, setting them aside with a shaky hand. For a moment, he almost saw Sakumo. He was getting old.

Kakashi's single eye didn't show any signs of change in emotion, but there was a stiffness in his shoulders that Sarutobi had come to spot. "Has something happened to Minato's son?"

"He has been kidnapped by the Mizukage," there was no shortage of pain that came with those words. How had Yagura managed such coercion? Did Naruto even require coercion?

"And the ANBU just let it happen?" Kakashi still sounded disinterested, tone bland and ever so contradictory to his tense posture.

"I guess no one expected something like that to happen, no one was supposed to know who Naruto really was," Sarutobi said, all of a sudden feeling the wear in his bones and the heaviness of the Hokage hat weighing on him. "I'm guessing Kiri didn't know until arriving in the village."

"So we're going to get him back?"

"It isn't that easy," Sarutobi pressed his pipe into his mouth, taking a sharp inhale and feeling the smoke infuse his lungs, filling them to their full capacity. "Kiri hasn't done anything wrong. Several witnesses confirmed that Naruto bumped into the Mizukage and that he went out of his own will. Besides, it's only against our treaties to recruit ninja from other villages, Naruto was not a ninja, only an academy student."

"If we do anything against them we might be seen as warmongers. Iwa and Kumo would rather that Kiri get another Jinchuuriki than let us keep ours," Kakashi finished. He was always a bright one, that boy, quick on his feet and though somewhat tactless, knowledgeable in politics.

"There is something we can do, but we need to act carefully. But we've more important issues at hand, our alliance with Suna is weak, and we need to strengthen it before it comes out that Kiri has the Kyuubi," Suna admired strength. No, feared it. Whilst Konoha never dealt well with fear, it would be a currency that Suna understands. "It will look better if we send a strong ninja, so you should go."

At that, Kakashi smiled, the fabric of his mask crinkling just a little. Sarutobi didn't have to look too carefully to know that it was wry. "There's a reason I didn't specialize in negotiation"

"I'll direct you to some chuunin that will draw up a good deal," Sarutobi said, understanding. "The important thing is that they'll see an increased value in our alliance and to redirect some of the missions that has come our way lately seeing as they've been struggling."

"Don't you have anyone else to send?" Kakashi sounded about as tired as he felt. Suna's younger generation was tolerable, at most. But they held grudges, and Sakumo had quite the reputation there.

"I could assign you a genin team straight away instead, but I'd rather have you train Sasuke and Naruto when the time is right," Sarutobi said. As uncomfortable as it was to force Kakashi into this expedition, it was _necessary_. That, and he doubted Danzo's methods would be preferable. "You need to get into shape again, get some contact with people and see the sun. I can't send you to Kiri the way you are now."

"You give this old man no choice," Kakashi muttered on the way out.

 _You have no idea._

Sarutobi closed his eyes and let himself sigh once he was alone again.

* * *

"Do you know why I called you here today, Danzo?"

Danzo looked at him through slitted eyes. With age, the sharpness of his face rounded and he didn't appear anywhere near as threatening, as cold and calculating, as he once did. But Sarutobi knew better than to believe in the facade. "This is about the Jinchuuriki right?"

"No, I'm going to ask you a question and I want you to give me a completely honest answer," Sarutobi hated to do this, hated the conflict, hated his hands dirtied like this. "Have you been mind-controlling the Mizuage for the last few years?"

"What are you talking about?" the surprise in Danzo's eye appeared genuine.

"The Mizukage was here earlier today, as you might know," Sarutobi said, feeling his stomach sink. He didn't want Danzo to be lying, but if he was, it would simplify the situation somewhat. "He accused the Uchiha of controlling him."

Danzo's face returned to its neutral state. "And you believed him?"

"He seemed to have no knowledge that the clan has been killed, and was quite shocked by the news." It was a roundabout response, neither denying nor confirming.

"Are you sure he's not just uninformed and ignorant?"

"He could be, if it wasn't for evidence for the contrary. Look at this," Sarutobi handed over a scroll. In spite of it all, he still had faith in Danzo.

"It's a condolence letter from the Mizukage," Danzo glanced at it and then dismissed it. Showing how little he cared for what the Mizukage had to say.

"Look at the date," Hiruzen urged his old teammate, gesturing at the scroll.

Danzo looked at the date, then back at the Hokage. "What about it?"

"There is no way he could have known about the massacre that fast.'' Hiruzen answered, tapping his desk with his index finger. ''The only way that could have been done is if the person controlling him knew about the massacre and made him send it too early."

"And the only one knowing beforehand was you and Itachi.'' Hiruzen leaned forward, adopting a serious look. ''Speaking of which… show me your other eye."

Danzo's one visible eye widened for a second in surprise before he recovered his posture."I see no reason to do that."

Hiruzen remained serious, the tension in the room rose. "It's an order."

Danzo met Hiruzen's stare, but conceded and reluctantly started to uncover his eye. When the bandages came undone, a familiar crimson eye revealed itself.

"Shisui's eye," Sarutobi stated, recognizing that one particular eye. "I was wondering where those ended up."

The tension in the room was heavier than ever.

"I did not use it on the Mizukage." Danzo defended himself and Hiruzen nodded.

"I know.'' He spoke, surprising Danzo once more. It doesn't do what the Mizukage experienced I also hope that in such a circumstance you'd use for something more profitable, rather than just sabotaging Kirigakure."

"It is good that you see sense here." Danzo relaxed somewhat, closing the eye.

"And where is the other one?" Hiruzen looked at his table.

"Shisui got away. Somebody had already taken his other eye when we found him."

"Someone…'' he stopped to think for a few seconds,''Itachi perhaps?"

"Most likely, they were very close. If he were to entrust it to anyone, it would be Itachi.

"Remove it." He became serious once more and Danzo sighed.

"Is that really necessary."

"If other villages even suspect us to hold such powers we will be destroyed. I want to only see one eye in your skull next time we meet. But be sure to keep it safe in case we need it."

"No. Hiruzen, we need this eye. We just lost our bijuu, what are we supposed to do when it gets used against us? Subdue it with paperwork? We need to keep what little advantages we still have.''

"Naruto isn't a threat to us right now, it will take years before Yagura can use it against us. When there is someone to put the blame on, hopefully soon, you can implant the eye again."

Hiruzen looked at the clock, it was getting late.

"Send your best team of Root-nin to assassinate Itachi, while no one reasonable would think he's a spy, there is enough unreasonable ninja who could make that accusation. We can't give any village a reason to believe we kept him alive, and make sure to patrol the border areas so he can't access Kiri while you're hunting him down. Just don't let the Mizukage think we plan on attacking him, he seems quite short tempered."

"I'll send them out tonight."

* * *

Naruto was shivering, he didn't expect it to be this cold, even on a boat.

"Sorry, I just needed to talk to dad," Yagura said behind him with a blanket rolled under his arm.

In reality Yagura needed to answer for why he brought with him Naruto

It would be no good if someone addressed him as Mizukage-sama while Naruto thought he was a genin. Revealing that he was a jounin might not be that much of a _betrayal_ , but there was no reason to prove Naruto wrong. He just needed to find him a Jounin-sensei, the sooner Naruto became genin of Kirigakure and made bonds to the village and not just him, the better.

"Here," Yagura unrolled the blanket and covered both of them. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah, just a bit cold," Naruto responded, snuggling into the blanket and him.

A few seconds passed and they were left in a somewhat uncomfortable silence. They both felt tired, but neither could sleep.

"You know, I've a demon inside me too." Yagura tried to continue a conversation.

"Too?" Naruto asked, blinking a couple of times.

"Yeah, that's why people call you a demon, they think you're the beast that is sealed inside you." Yagura explained, sitting upwards and taking off his shirt.

"I've a demon inside me?" Naruto asked and a series of scribbles appeared on Yagura's stomach.

"Yeah, we're called Jinchuuriki,. human sacrifice." He traced his finger on the seal.

Naruto shook his head." No that can't be! I heard that the fourth Hokage defeated the Kyuubi. You saying he just put it inside me?"

Yagura nodded and placed his shirt back on.

"Why?" Naruto asked, pulling his shirt up in curiosity.

"He must have done it to protect Konoha, and to keep you as a weapon.." Yagura placed his finger on Naruto's belly and a series of squabbles and letters appeared on him as well.

"Woah," Naruto pulled his skin, inspecting the seal, noticing that his was different to Yagura's. ''But, that means…''

"Yes, Kiri wanted to use me as a weapon, our village has had dark history, that's why I want to become Mizukage, to make everyone's life better and throw away our dark past." Yagura smiled at Naruto and retreated his hand, the seal disappearing.

"I just need to sleep, I don't want to think about it."

* * *

 **AN:**

Thanks to Jam for betaing this chapter.


	2. Chapter 2

_'_ _Time to do something,'_ Yagura thought, as he watched his people outside go about with their lives looking gloomy as usual. A lonely looking woman was begging for the food vendor to lower his prices, crying and desperate, speaking over and over about her children.

 **"** **How can you think to save a village, if you cannot help one solitary person?"** Isobu advised him.

Yagura took a moment to think about the advice before he jumped out the window and down on the street. Without making too much of a fuss, he walked up to the stand and gave the woman quite a shock. She very nearly fainted when she saw her brutal leader handing the shopkeeper the money she needed.

"Do you need anything more?" Yagura asked and looked up at her.

The woman just shook her head and ran off with her goods, not even thanking him, but he guessed her fear overwrote her gratefulness. Hopefully, she would think better of it when she had time to calm down a bit.

 **"** **It isn't always easy to do what's right when everyone sees you as someone you aren't, but you should still try,"** Isobu told him.

"You're right, of course. I suppose that I should check up on Naruto now, it wouldn't be good if he started to miss home due to my neglect," Yagura said and tried to cheer a bit up.

 **"** **Bring some food with you."**

"Pardon?"

 **"** **He's probably hungry after not having eaten since yesterday, and it helps him see you as a friend, you won't get his loyalty by acting like a superior, but rather as a friend."**

"I know how to make friends," Yagura mumbled, a tailed beast could be helpful at times, but also quite annoying at others.

Yagura had no idea where to get ramen; he wasn't as familiar with his own village as he wished he was. What he really needed was to change his priorities, what was the point of defending the village against outside threats and internal issues if he ignored the needs and activities of his people? Though he could get some other food, he had no idea what else the kid liked. Though that _did_ gave him an idea on how to keep Naruto occupied, for a little while at least.

-x-

"Come in," Naruto called from inside as Yagura knocked on his door.

Yagura walked into the small, one-room apartment that he had fixed for Naruto. It was simple, but Naruto seemed to have found himself a home here.

"I thought you might be hungry, so I brought some food with me," Yagura smiled as he handed Naruto a bowl of soup and some bread.

"I thought you might be trying to starve me to me to death," Naruto laughed, breathing in the steam. "Mmm, it smells good."

Naruto's reaction really made Yagura smile. It soon dissolved into a frown as Naruto emptied the bowl in a single gulp, his lack of table manners becoming apparent.

"I've a fun idea, why don't you look for a place to get ramen? If you can find one, I'll treat you to a bowl?" he suggested.

"Really?! I'm in," Naruto smiled and ate the bread as fast as possible, so that he could start exploring.

"Bye, but don't expect to wait too long," Naruto called as he ran out.

"I guess I need to get back to work," Yagura sighed as he watched Naruto run.

-x-

Yagura really didn't like these meetings, even if it was his own idea. He had thought it would be useful to have someone check on his decision-making in case anything went wrong, but it felt like the council took a bit much pleasure in their own expanded influence.

They weren't happy that he had brought someone from Konoha with him for seemingly no reason. He hadn't told them about Naruto's true nature, it would be best to keep it a secret until he had the situation entirely under control. He had already messed up his plan by revealing a softer side of himself before he went to Konoha.

It would be much easier to just rule as a ruthless dictator, there was no one who wanted their side to be heard and no one that pointed out errors in his thinking, but he couldn't revert this now, he had to live with his decision.

-x-

The rain poured down over Yagura and Naruto as they hurried under the roof of the ramen stand.

"It's a nice place you found," Yagura commented as he looked around the stall.

"Yeah, it was hard to find. There aren't many places like this here," Naruto replied.

"Our village is struggling, not many can afford to eat at places like this," Yagura said.

"It's nice here, no one looks at me as if I had killed their entire family," Yagura spoke and expected a chuckle from this, however, Naruto started to cry instead.

 _'_ _A ninja should cry,'_ he had always been told, and had told others, but never told what to do if someone else cried in front of him. He didn't know what to do or say, and it showed

"It's okay," Naruto sniffed and took another mouthful of ramen, "it's just a bit saltier than usual, I don't mind."

Yagura was unsure if he should laugh at the joke, or just be there for Naruto.

"I don't want to go home, do I have to?" Naruto asked.

That was true, Naruto was just visiting him, it was he who had assumed that Naruto had _defected_ , he had never really asked Naruto about it.

"Why do you say that?" Yagura asked.

"I want to be a ninja, but I can't make a clone, I keep on failing and the graduation exam is soon. I'll never be a ninja, I'll never be Hokage," Naruto cried out.

"You know something? I don't know how to do a basic clone either," Yagura admitted. It was true, after the Isobu was sealed into him, there was too much Chakra in him for such a delicate task. "But those clones are useless, I _could_ teach you how to make a water clone if you wanted?"

"Really?" Naruto chimed out, "You're the best. When can we start?"

"After we've eaten if you want," Yagura said before he was assaulted by a hug from Naruto. The boy emptied the entire bole down his throat in an instant before he stood up and grinned at Yagura, ready to go.

-x-

"Why are we here?" Naruto asked as he looked out over the shore.

"Water Jutsu are much easier to do near water and in humid areas. They are harder in other places though, but you should be able to use them as long as you're not in a desert," Yagura explained.

"So how do I do it?"

"Be patient," Yagura said as he felt his eyes twitching at Naruto's impatience. "You need to learn the basics first. Stick your hands into the water and send chakra through it. At first, you'll only be able to move it slightly. But if you _just_ keep on practising, you will feel yourself gaining control over the water."

As Naruto put his hands into the cold water, Yagura started to create a bonfire beside them.

"What's that for?" Naruto asked as he looked at Yagura suspiciously.

"You're going to have your hands in cold water for hours, you need to keep yourself warm," Yagura said. He repressed the desire to call Naruto an idiot and filed the statement away to tease him with later.

"Oh, I didn't think about that, thank you." Naruto smiled as he turned to him.

Yagura smiled back before he turned his focus quickly back onto the file. "You just keep on working on your control."

-x-

Kakashi was tired; not just from dealing with Suna, but also because he had barely gotten any sleep after leaving their village. The worst part was that it was mostly his own fault.  
Now he just needed to get approval to go to Kiri and get Naruto back. He just needed to make sure he didn't keel over in front of Sarutobi.

"You're back, I see." the Hokage said as he looked up to a visibly exhausted Kakashi from his desk.

"Yes, Suna needed time to think about the deal. They'll come back to us when they've made a decision. Now, can I leave and get back Naruto?"

"How much sleep have you gotten over the last few days?" Sarutobi asked him with an accusatory tone.

"A few hours, I think. Ninja are supposed to be able to endure without it," Kakashi mumbled and threw his hand out as he almost lost his balance

"Get to bed, you're barely capable of standing up. How can you expect to be able to retrieve Naruto?"

Kakashi had no time to answer as he fell to the ground and lost consciousness, which gave Sarutobi no other choice than to signal to some nearby ANBU to carry him to a bed.

-x-

Kakashi's head hurt, his vision was blurred and he didn't know where he was. Had he been captured on his way back from Suna?

He saw something move into the room.

"I'm not saying anything," Kakashi mumbled, before he saw that the person in question wasn't an enemy ninja but his commander, the Hokage.

"I hope that you're better now?" Sarutobi asked.

"What happened to me?" Kakashi asked as he adjusted himself into a sitting position.

"You feel asleep during your mission report. Are you ready, or should I come back to you tomorrow?"

"No no, I'll have to get going as soon as I can. I can't give the Mist time to poison Naruto's mind. I was thinking, do you think I can promote him?"

"What do you mean?" Sarutobi questioned.

"If he's a genin, Yagura can't hold him there. That and it will be a nice gesture to make him feel more welcomed here."

"Not a bad idea, I'll approve of it. Anything more?"

"I want to tell him about his father, show him that he has a deep and profound connection to the village that he should be proud of," Kakashi argued.

"Hmm, it might be time, it's not like the secret is protecting him anymore. I'll approve it. However, just in case your plan fails, don't tell Naruto that Yagura is the Mizukage. The longer we wait, the more Naruto will feel betrayed by being tricked into thinking he was his friend, Yagura might be able to explain his way out of the mess now, but not if we delay it."

"I guess you won't let me go if I don't agree with it?"

"You prove yourself a prodigy once more, Kakashi," Sarutobi chuckled. "You know where to find the stuff you need. So leave when you're ready and try to not get yourself killed."

"Thank you, Hokage-Sama," Kakashi replied and bowed his head deeply as he started to leave

-x-

It had been some days since Naruto had started practising. Whenever Yagura was not too busy dealing with village business, he took time out to watch over his young friend.

"You're doing well Naruto," Yagura told him as he watched Naruto's handling of the water. What started as just small movements had now improved to a level where Naruto could lift smaller shapes out of the water and control them. "You should take a break now, I bought some food."

Naruto got away from the water and held his hands in front of the fire to warm it up.

"You know that you don't have to go back if you don't want to," Yagura told him as he handed Naruto grilled meat and vegetables pierced on a stick.

"Huh?" Naruto let out as he took a bite from the meat on the stick and avoided the vegetables.

"You could become a Kiri ninja if you wanted. I've talked to the Mizukage, and he told me that it's okay."

"Really?" Naruto exclaimed out of happiness. "I would really like that, you know. Do you think we can be teammates?"

"I'm glad to hear that! I'm afraid that it's unlikely that we'll be on the same team, but that's okay. We'll be friends, no matter what, right?" Yagura said, he had a job to do, he just needed to make sure Naruto got a team that would accept him.

-x-

Kakashi arrived at a small village not far away from Kirigakure and had settled himself at an inn. He was far too experienced to go into enemy territory in this kind of state. Besides, Sarutobi would kill him if he messed up simply because of a lack of sleep. It wasn't like Yagura was one night away from making Naruto loyal to him, as much as he wanted to grab Naruto and run back to Konoha, resting was a reasonable trade-off. If he didn't rest now, he wouldn't be able to run away should the need come.

-x-

"Yagura! Look, I did it," Naruto exclaimed and pointed to a watery version of Naruto that was stood in the turf.

Yagura looked at it and smiled. "Good work. Listen, I've got a surprise for you, close your eyes."

"Okay?" Naruto said, but quickly did as he was told. And as he stood there he felt something being tied around his head.. As Naruto felt that Yagura was stepping back, he opened his eyes again.

"Congratulations, you're a Genin now," Yagura spoke, and gave Naruto a pat on the shoulder.

Naruto stroked the forehead protector and felt the four waves in the Kiri symbol, before looking down into the water at his projection.

"I... I finally did it, I'm a ninja! And before that bastard, Sasuke, as well!" Naruto said and ran at Yagura to enfold him in another hug.

"So, do you want to celebrate with some ramen?" Yagura asked him and patted his head.

"Are kunai sharp?" Naruto answered as a joke. Of course he wanted ramen, no sane person would decline that! He started to run towards the stand that they had been eating at the day he had arrived in Kiri.

-x-

Kakashi glinted the sun outside his window, ' _Wake up Kakashi, you've a job to do_ ' he thought to himself as he grabbed his clothes and a clean mask. He had no time for a proper breakfast; a ration bar would have to do for now. He packed away his forehead protector; while it might cause him problems to enter a village without identifying himself as a Konoha ninja, he'd never get any information if he did identify himself as a Konoha ninja. He then and left the inn and made his way to the village.

-x-

He noticed that it wasn't all that hard to get to get into the village. He just needed to show a letter from Sarutobi that proved he was on a diplomatic mission. He would be watched every step of the way, no doubt, but they didn't seem to mind his entry.

-x-

After having both asked and looked around the village for some time, he noticed the smell of ramen and quickly found its source. To his immense luck, a yellow-haired boy was sitting there. There could be no doubt: it was Naruto. He walked slowly towards the stand so as to not frighten him.

"One miso ramen please," Kakashi asked the person manning the stand.

"A moment and it should be ready sir," they answered.

"Hi Naruto," He said and turned towards his target.

Naruto turned his head towards him and asked, "Do I know you?"

"I'm Hatake Kakashi, I was sent by the Hokage to get you back to Konoha."

"I don't want to go back, I'm fine here," Naruto answered and shifted around on his stool.

"I've got a gift for you from Sarutobi," Kakashi pleaded.

"What's that?" Naruto said, looking quite confused.

Kakashi grabbed a Konoha forehead protector from his pockets and presented in front of Naruto.

"I'm already a ninja," Naruto stated bluntly and pointed to his forehead.

' _How could I not notice that?_ ' Kakashi asked himself. Was this a genjutsu, or was the fact too unreal for him to accept it on the first glance? But he couldn't deny it, Naruto was a Kiri-nin now. He didn't care; international treaties be damned, he was going to get Naruto back.

"I got promoted last night, I managed to do a water clone, so Yagura promoted me."

' _That bastard_ ', Kakashi thought to himself, he should never have delayed this. If he hadn't needed to go to Suna, this would never have happened.

"You don't find it strange that it was him and not the Mizukage promoting you?" Kakashi asked as he rose an eyebrow.

"Yagura told me that he talked to the Mizukage about it, he's-" Naruto stopped mid-sentence; he had nearly revealed that Yagura was a Jinchuuriki, but had managed to stop himself in time. He wasn't supposed to tell people that, Yagura would be _so_ angry with him. "He's close to the Mizukage," he said instead.

As much as Kakashi wanted to tell Naruto straight away that Yagura was the Mizukage, he thought it best to stick to the plan. It had come from the Hokage, after all.

"You know, I knew your parents," Kakashi said with a careless tone.

"Really? Then why didn't you say this before? Who were they? Were they great ninja?"

"Your father was my sensei, and a great ninja indeed and your mother was the scariest woman I've seen, but more full of love for her family than most I have ever known," Kakashi explained.

"Really?" Naruto blurted out in disbelief, shocked by the revelations.

Kakashi nodded in return.

"What were their names?"

"Uzumaki Kushina was your mother, and Nazikaze Minato, also known as the fourth Hokage, was your father."

"Lord Fourth was my father?" Naruto asked as his whole body froze.

"Yes, he would be proud of you, you know?"

The cogs moved behind Naruto's eyes. The Fourth had sealed the Nine-Tailed Beast into him. The Fourth had chosen to make a weapon of him.

"Then, all of this is my father's fault?" Naruto asked, anger rising in his voice. To be told that it was not just the Fourth, but his father, who had chosen to do this. "It's my dad's fault that no-one would ever be my friend? It was my dad's fault that everyone looked at me like… like dog crap? Just because he wanted to turn me into a weapon?"

Kakashi had begun to panic; this wasn't how this was supposed to go! "Naruto, it's not like that at all," Kakashi pleaded as he reached out to Naruto.

But Naruto had frozen completely. His eyes had turned red and the pupils had become slit like those of a fox.

"Naruto, snap out of it! Your parents loved you more than anything," Kakashi yelled in desperation.

Naruto didn't respond - _couldn't_ respond, a red cloud of chakra began to form around Naruto. If he heard anything that Kakashi had said then he didn't believe him.

"Naruto, stop!," Kakashi cried out as he tried to grab Naruto, only for his hands to be forced away by the burning shroud that surrounded Naruto.

Naruto let out a roar, or perhaps a scream, that was so loud that people fled from the street. Kakashi could see two tails raging, flowing like rivers of fire behind Naruto.

' _What do I do? What can I do?_ ' Kakashi asked himself. This wasn't supposed to happen at all, and least of all happen here. He by no means liked the Mist, but he had no desire for innocent blood on his hands.

Neither he nor Sarutobi was prepared for this situation. When they had talked about him taking Naruto as a student, the plan was to wait until something happened with Kyuubi before making a proper plan. That turned out to be a bad idea. They had expected something smaller the first time, not this.

Naruto charged at Kakashi without warning at Kakashi and tried to strike his chakra claws towards him, which Kakashi dodged in the last moment.

"Wake up Naruto! Don't give in," Kakashi shouted.

Naruto just growled back and made a new charge towards Kakashi. The older ninja saw now that he had no choice other than to fight back, and kicked Naruto back with all of his strength. There was no point holding back now.

If only there was a way to knock him out without harming him. It was the only way he could think of to stop this. Kakashi could only hope, if he was wrong then he was harming the boy for no reason.

He gave Naruto almost no time to land before he threw himself at the boy and kicked him down into the side of a house.

Kakashi waited for Naruto to get up again before he decided his next move, it didn't take long for Naruto to get up, but instead of charging at Kakashi again, he ran away and further into the village.

"Damn. Sarutobi will want my head for this," Kakashi muttered and ran after Naruto.

However, Naruto wasn't so easy to catch. It had been that way even before in the Leaf, and it was even harder now, in unknown territory and it didn't take long before Kakashi lost the sight of him.

As Kakashi checked around for Naruto, following a sound that he had heard in the distance. Out of the blue, something hard struck him a blow to the stomach and he was thrown back by the impact.

"What are you doing here, Konoha scum!?" The Mizukage yelled at him.

Kakashi looked over the man who would be Mizukage and assessed his options. With the way that the man was talking, there would be no talking this out diplomatically.

"I'm here to get Naruto back after you kidnapped him," Kakashi grunted and lifted up his headband to uncover Obito's Sharingan.

"Uchiha," Yagura spat out in spite, "The Hokage assured me that the only Uchiha left was a 12-year-old boy, and yet here you are."

"I'm no Uchiha. I'm Kakashi, the Scarecrow, and I'm here to take Naruto home," Kakashi replied in kind.

"Naruto went with me of his own free will!" Yagura yelled back.

"Only after you poisoned his mind and told him that the Fourth Hokage only wanted to make him into a weapon," Kakashi spoke in reply, his voice laced with venom.

"You really think isn't the truth? We Jinchuuriki were made for just one purpose: to be weapons. Don't think for a second that I'd let Naruto go back to that fate. He's one of my ninja now, and I won't let you take him so he can be a tool for Konoha. Leave while you still can, old man," Yagura told him as he bares his teeth at the enemy.

"You have really got things wrong here. None of this matters; I won't leave this village without him. And aren't you older than me?" Kakashi teased.

"I don't care, you die right here!" Yagura yelled out, and with a strike of his hooked staff, a water dragon spew forward towards and forced Kakashi back.

Kakashi knew he was outclassed, he couldn't win against someone who was both a Jinchuuriki and a Kage. Even now, said Kage was sending high-level water Jutsu towards him as if they were nought but simple kunai.

The barrage didn't stop until Yagura had pushed Kakashi and himself well away from people and near the shore. Kakashi was quite surprised to see the level of control that Yagura had. Despite how powerful the Jutsu was, it hadn't caused any damage to any of the village, just made the streets a bit wet. Kirigakure was clearly built to stand both flooding and allied ninja defending the area. The only damage that he could notice, looked like it was from Naruto charging through the area.

"Why stop here? Run out of chakra already? I'd make it about your size, but I don't go for the low-hanging fruit. Got to leave that for little people," Kakashi taunted the Mizukage, forgetting for a precious moment exactly where he was standing.

It wasn't before he saw Yagura's dark little smile and a large shadow over him that he knew it was over. All he could do now was to hope that Yagura would value diplomatic relations over his ego and not kill him.

-x-

After having dealt with the intruder, Yagura went to look at Naruto. Hopefully, his black-ops would have managed to capture Naruto and get him under control. Despite the fact that he had had control over the Three-Tails for a long time, the village was always prepared for a situation where he would lose control. Call it unnecessary, but it had all paid off now.

He went into the room where Naruto was staying and saw that the kid was sleeping, but not injured. A Bijuu's pure chakra tended to have negative effects on its vessel if one didn't have any control, but Naruto was either lucky or it had already healed.

"Mizukage-Sama, the council has called for a meeting," one of his ANBU said.

"I told you to not call me that near him," Yagura snapped at the ANBU operative, annoyed at his carelessness.

"I'm sorry, but he was sleeping so I figured-" the ANBU stuttered as he tried to defend his actions.

"Just do as you're told next time. I don't want him to find out by an accident. In any case, I'm coming, it's better to get this over with as soon as possible."

-x-

Yagura would rather fight a dozen Konoha-nin than have to deal this.

"What were you thinking about, letting a untamed Jinchuuriki into the village? We're lucky it didn't cause even more damage," one clan leader shouted out. Yagura didn't care too much about them, they were all power hungry people who cared only about their own clan.

"I think we should give Mizukage-sama a chance here, the Nine-Tailed Beast would definitely be a solid resource for the village, maybe then we wouldn't need to reunite with the traitors," another one of them added to the discussion.

What fools these clan heads were; he wasn't trying to make peace with the rebels because they were losing the war, but because it was the right thing to do. He had, no, the unknown Uchiha had caused the village much harm. He couldn't fault them for wanting to rid the village of the evil he once was. If he couldn't rectify his mistake of giving these idiotic people power, then it wouldn't matter if someone were to control him again, the village was already doomed. It was an ironic situation, the only ones able to help him fix this mess was his enemies. He still had the power to sign peace deals without the consent of the council, and with that single loophole, he could take away all their power over him.

But first, he needed to show Mei and the ninja loyal to her that they could trust him and that he was a capable leader. Naruto was coincidentally one step towards that ideal. Even though he had originally been handed the responsibility of a village in decline, he was now better placed to begin negotiations. If he could present the case as him wanting peace for the sake of peace, and not because he was losing, it would be easier to talk with them.

"Are you listening Mizukage-sama?" One of the councilmen shouted as if his attention had been called for several times.

"Can you please repeat yourself?" Yagura asked. He was frankly too bored and had more important things to consider than their usual drivel.

"Naruto already believes that you are a Genin, correct?" One councilman asked him.

"Yes, as I've told you so countless times," Yagura replied in a bored tone, making it clear to the people around him that they should hurry up and get over with it.

"And you just promoted him, but he's yet to be assigned a team. So I was thinking, what if you continued to play your little game with him, and acted as his teammate," the man suggested with a smirk.

The other council members nodded in agreement.

' _What, is this an attempt to remove me from power?_ ' Yagura asked himself. These people had been loyal to him during his time under control, what had changed now? But the realisation dawned on Yagura, they were loyal to the brutal dictator he once was. But now that he was becoming softer and tried to solve the civil war through diplomacy, they wanted to get rid of him.

Yagura knew it was a risky move but decided to do it anyway.

"Are you trying to take my seat as Mizukage?" Yagura accused the man.

"Of course not my Lord," the man answered back in a hurry, giving the look of a man who knew that he had stepped too far.

Yagura smiled his dark little smile, ' _I'll play their little game if they think they got me the better. Now I have an excuse to get away from the village and do what I need to play my own game.'_ It was time to pay many of the village's missing-nin a visit. If everything went to hell, he could join the rebels and retake the village with them.

"I agree, I'll still be in charge but I'll make sure the village can be led as usual while I'm gone on missions. Give me a month and I should have made the preparations I need for this to work out. I'll issue an order banning any Konoha-nin into the village, so whatever they did to cause Naruto to react this way can never happen again," Yagura said.

-x-

After the successful or perhaps unsuccessful meeting, depending on how one judged it. Yagura retreated to his office and drew out a letter to a certain Terumi Mei, he had hoped to keep some pride, but his pride was less important than the village. She was his only hope now.

-x-

The next morning a tired Yagura went to meet up with Naruto, he wanted to make sure that no other foolish Konoha-nin had tried to get to him again. He shouldn't have stayed up so late writing and rewriting letters. 'Work smarter, not harder,' was something that he had forgotten in his tired state. Besides, doing any kind of intellectual work was not the kind of thing you did when your bed called for you.

"Hello Yagura. Is everything okay? You don't look so good," Naruto asked him.

"I just went to bed a bit late," Yagura answered truthfully. "The Mizukage summoned me yesterday and he had good news for us. We're going to be teammates."

"What changed? I mean, didn't you say this wouldn't happen? Not that I'm complaining or anything, this is great!" Naruto added with a cheer.

His outburst made Yagura smile. "People are a bit worried about you, after what happened yesterday with the Kyuubi. So since you know me, and we both shared the same fate, he figured that this was for the best."

Naruto looked down at the ground, his eyes hidden by the shadow of regret.

"Oh, don't take it that way! It's only some stupid old men that think that I'll protect you from any danger. Don't worry, you're my first real friend after all," Yagura admitted.

"Wait, didn't you say you had lots of friends, and that they were just out on a mission?"

"I was lying to you, I'm sorry. But, I didn't really have any friends. I just didn't want to admit that okay? It's embarrassing," Yagura told him with a blush.

"Don't worry, you're my first friend too," Naruto told him with a smile.

"This came a bit unexpected, so we don't have a full team yet," Yagura said.

He just hoped Mei would send someone to spy on him, someone that could fill the third slot. He didn't know who else to trust and he didn't want anyone to blabber and call him out as the Mizukage, either intentionally or by accident.

"But I'll make sure we get a great team, so there;s nothing to worry about. Promise me not to tell anyone, but I'll be gone a few days on a mission. Don't go doing anything stupid while I'm gone."

"Don't worry about me. I'll practice more on what you showed me, I'll make water dragons like you in no time, believe it!" Naruto exclaimed, giving his chest a thump in a show of solidarity.

"Goodbye then," Yagura said, giving Naruto a quick wave goodbye, before he rushed off to begin his own personal mission.

-x-

Yagura stood in front of his mirror while he applied a small amount of makeup to cover up his distinctive scar. His eyes would be a giveaway as well and he had a pair of lenses that would make them appear black, which he put in now.

Once he was happy with how he looked, he searched through his wardrobe for some more discrete clothes. After getting dressed and making sure the letters was safely fastened to his body, he put on his cloak and began to sneak out into the woods around the village and towards the rebel camp.

-x-

 **Thanks to Ignisetigris for betaing this chapter.**

 **I'm sorry for anyone getting multiple alerts, I had some issues with exporting this from word, which messed up the formatting.**


	3. Chapter 3

A heavy mist formed in front of Damasa and Hanko as they patrolled their base.

Damasa stopped suddenly, his eyes scouring the woodland. "Did you hear that?" He whispered to his companion.

Fast steps came from the mist straight at them, accompanied by the sound of heavy breathing.

"Be ready but don't strike, it sounds like a child." He added, settling into a ready stance

The steps came closer until they could make out a small figure stepping out of the mist.

It was a hooded boy, his eyes filled with tears. "Please, help me," he implored. "They're going to kill me. Please don't let them kill me."

"It's okay, what's your name kid?" Hanko asked.

"My mom told me not to give my name to strangers," The boy told them, his body shaking with fear.

"It's okay, you're safe with us," Hanko told the boy. He moved his hand to push down the hood, but the boy resisted and just pulled the hood further down.

"Hanko, bring the boy to the camp and warn them against a potential attack. I'll keep watch and make sure no one chase you down," Damasa said.

Hanko nodded and turned to the boy, "Is that okay with you?"

"I just want my mommy," the boy said. They could hear that he had stopped crying and sighed with relief to have calmed him down a bit. The boy held out his hand towards Hanko, who took it gently as he was able and led him deeper into the forest, leaving Damasa alone to the potential danger in the mist.

-x-

It was easy to see that the boy wasn't a ninja, but despite that, he had no problem keeping up the pace, as long as he got a push now and then. He wasn't used to civilian kids, but he could respect that not everyone wanted their children to partake in fighting the Bloody Mist. They fled the village to give their children a safer life and making them ninja would defeat that purpose.

The last weeks had been calm, but now there was another attack a bit too close to comfort.

As the two entered the camp he let go of the boy's hand.

"Do you think you can find your mother on your own? I need to warn people about this." Hanko asked the boy.

"Thanks, sir." the boy muttered from beneath his hood.

"Just call me Hanko," the man smiled at the boy, despite the fact that the boy couldn't see it under the hood.

"Thanks, Hanko," the boy said and ran towards one of the tents.

Hanko quickly got the attention of the ninja stationed in the camp and hurried out to push back the attack. They couldn't let their location be exposed or it was over for them.

-x-

"Mei, I have a letter for you. From Yagura," Ao spoke, his voice grave.

"Give it to me," Mei grabbed it from Ao's hand and started to read.

"What does the letter say, my lady? Is Yagura making some ridiculous demand? Or perhaps he wishes to surrender?" Ao asked, allowing himself the luxury of a smile

"Not exactly, but if what he's saying is true, this is very good news. He tells me that he's been controlled by an unknown Uchiha, but if you ask me, this is a weak attempt of a lie," Mei spoke, her fingers rose to cover her mouth as her eyes followed the words down the page.

"I was once subjected to the powers of an Uchiha. Such would not be beyond their power," Ao recalled with a voice full of bitterness.

"Your silence would be appreciated, Ao. I'm reading," Mei told him with a clipped tone.

His silence assured, Mei leant back in her chair and read deeper through the letter.

"He's starting reforming the laws, abolishing the caste system and making sure that bloodline users are safe from prosecution," Mei read aloud. A tone of wonder crept into her voice and an incredulous look settled on her face.

"Is that just talk or is he really doing it?" Ao questioned. A frown adorned his face as well and he longed to read the message himself.

"I told you to shut up! But we have a chance to get more intel, as part of the peace process, he's inviting lower ranked ninja back into the village with full amnesty" Mei told him, a gleam in her eye.

"Do you have anyone in mind that could be the right one?

 _'Do you have anyone? The right one?'_ All Mei could hear was him talking about her finding herself a man.

"Shut up," she growled. "Or I'll kill you."

"There is something I want to know Ao, where did you get this from?" Mei asked. She placed the letter gently on the table and turned to him.

"What do you mean, my lady?" Ao answered.

"Who delivered this to you? We don't have any communication channels to the village," she elaborated.

"A young boy handed it to me, I don't know who it was; he was wearing a hood and refused to give his name," Ao Explained.

"Bring me some sake, I need to drink," Mei told him, the arms of her chair cracking under her tightened grip.

"My lady?" Ao questioned.

"It was Yagura, you idiot!" Mei roared." How did he find out this easily? Why didn't the patrols stop him, and are there actually any traps around here?"

Ao brought Mei a bottle of sake and was about to pour it into her glass when she grabbed the bottle and chugged down.

"Bring people back, there is no attack," Mei order Ao, emptying the sake down her throat. "And bring me another of those," she added, half tempted to throw the bottle at the head of her right-hand -man.

"Mei-sama, there is something you have to see," one of her Ninja interrupted her. After what had happened tonight, there was really no time to lose, her sake could wait.

Outside she saw something burning on the ground, on a closer inspection, she noticed that it was Yagura's clothes.

"What do you make of it?" Ao asked.

"There's no explanation I can think of, Ao. Either he's has gone completely insane and is running around in the forest naked, or..." She sighed.

"And our next move?" Ao asked further.

"For now, we'll work with what Yagura has given us. I'll send Chojuro to the Mist, the boy is honest to a fault. We will make a decision based on his observations," Mei explained

Ao gave a bow and returned to the tent with her command. As he left, Mei turned and watched the ashes float away on the wind.

 _'Is this a sign?'_ She wondered to herself. _'"I have shed my old skin." Is that what you're trying to tell me, Yagura?'_

 _'No matter what your intentions are, you've made us look like fresh Genin tonight. But if you want to talk, I see no reason to refuse. You've already proven that you could easily crush our resistance. Can there be a peaceful resolution for all of us?'_

-x-

"Chōjūrō, come here," Mei ordered.

"Mei-sama, have I done anything wrong?" Chojuro spoke, having dashed into the room.

"Of course not, I have an important job for you," Mei said with a calm smile.

"My lady? Are you sure?" Chojuro spoke, worry creeping into every word. "I'm not sure I'd be the best person.

"You need to believe in yourself more. You're just going back to Kirigakure to observe if Yagura is serious about changing the village," Mei told him with a gentle tone.

Chojuro could not face her confident smile and looked away. "My lady, I.."

"Don't be afraid, if he tries to do anything to you I'll come to Kiri and crush his skull. Besides, it would make me oh so happy if you did this for me," Mei said to him with a gentle caress.

"I'll do it, I'll make you proud," Chojuro replied, a confidence filling his voice out of nowhere.

Mei smiled into her Sake. Boys could be so easy to work with at times.

-x-

Iruka was engrossed with the marking when there came a knock at his door.

"Come in," Iruka said while keeping his eyes on the work. "Hmm, Shikamaru's tests, I'll just mark it one hundred per cent, no need to actually check it," he mumbled to himself. His eyes were glued so thoroughly to his work that he very nearly jumped right out of his seat when he heard the Hokage's voice.

"I hope you aren't thinking of falsifying results, young man," he spoke, no humour in his voice.

"Oh no, Hokage-sama, I was just joking with myself," Iruka told him with a nervous laugh. He stood up and gave his master the customary salute.

"I should hope not, these children are the Leaf's future Iruka," Sarutobi spoke, before shaking his head and moving to stand by Iruka's fireplace. "I'm not here to control your work Iruka, require a favour from you."

"Anything for you, Hokage-sama," Iruka replied.

"I want you to teach your students about the history of the Hidden Mist, focusing on its brutal past. Nothing need be said about the current Kage, of course," Sarutobi explained.

"I'm sorry Hokage-sama, but the lesson plan is already full. The children will only listen to so much," Iruka replied.

"I'm sure you can squeeze it in somehow."

"We're already pressing too much, I'm really sorry," Iruka replied. He found himself rubbing his hands together as a cold chill entered the room.

"Tell me Iruka, for how long have you been a teacher?" Sarutobi asked, turning his head gently to look at Iruka.

"Are you going to fire me?" Iruka exclaimed.

"Oh, I'd never fire you, Iruka, but perhaps a short… Holiday is in order. You're clearly stressed. In the meantime, I'll find someone who's more open to the idea," Sarutobi said.

"I'll fit it in, but I don't know much about it myself. If you can help me out and get me an overview of the subject," Iruka sighed. "I'll sort something out."

"I'll be happy to help out, I'll have a someone deliver something on your desk till tomorrow," Sarutobi said.

"Is this about Naruto?" Iruka asked, breathing out.

"You could say that, yes," the Hokage answered. "I don't know if the Mizukage will go after more of our ninja, I'm most worried about Sasuke and Hinata since they are the most susceptible. Make sure they keep close attention at least. But who knows how many of the Kunoichi he might be able to charm."

"I don't think you'll need to worry about them, they're much too interested in Sasuke to go after someone much older."

"Let's just hope you're right," Sarutobi mumbled and left Iruka's office.

-x-

"All right class, we've had much about Konoha's history, so today's class will be about the Hidden Mist Village," Iruka greeted.

Naturally, his students groaned in response, he had hoped that they might be somewhat interested in the other villages, but he was too optimistic.

When the class finally finished, he was relieved, hopefully, this was enough for the Hokage. He could see that the students were shaken by what they heard. The contrast to their own village and Mist's gruesome graduation requirements was too great, even if it was a thing of the past. Though he wondered why the Hokage had forbidden him to talk about Mizukage, it didn't bother him too much. Sarutobi might just have some old grudge with him from the war.

-x-

"Sakura, can I talk to you a bit?" Shikamaru asked Sakura after the class.

"Sure, no problem I've nothing to do anyway," she answered.

"Was it just me, or did Iruka feel quite strange today?" Shikamaru asked.

"Hmm, yeah, it was strange, almost like he didn't want to teach us about this at all. We don't have any about the other villages. Why are you asking me about this? I'm sure you've it all figured it out already."

"I wasn't sure if I just over-analyzed things. You seem to have a good head, I'll trust your judgement."

"Oh, thanks," Sakura blushed.

"Do you have any idea why he focused so much on Hinata and Sasuke, he didn't care about the rest of us, but as soon as one of them stopped paying attention for a moment, he was straight at them."

"Of course he'd notice Sasuke-kun, but why Hinata. And where is Naruto gone?"

"Do you think this is connected, and that Hinata or Sasuke might disappear too?" Shikamaru asked.

"It's strange, but maybe. As much as Naruto bragged about becoming Hokage, it's strange if he just quit. But now we have to focus on trying to graduate, I don't want to be held back while Sasuke-kun becomes a ninja. See you later, I promised to help mom with something, so I can't let her wait anymore."

-x-

Chōjūrō was waiting nervously, today was the day he'd return to the Mist village. He was just a little child when his parents left the village. Mei had offered to help him pack while he was sorting out his nerves.

She had gone over the plans for where and how they'd meet, and she's promised him to check up on him as often as possible, but it didn't help still the fear that Yagura would slice him in two as soon as he entered the village. But he would be strong for Mei, she'd been quite supportive of him after his parents died.

"Are you ready Chōjūrō-kun?" Mei asked him.

"Yeah, just a bit nervous," Chōjūrō answered.

"You'll be fine, and remember that this could end the war. just make sure to gather as much information as you can. You should write a diary to keep track, it to be read, so be careful about what you write. Anything else, you need to remember on your own. Don't try to write code, they'll crack it and then you."

"But what if I forget something?" Chōjūrō mumbled.

"That's why I'm going to visit you as often as I can, we talked over this, it's nothing to be afraid about," Mei smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

-x-

Chōjūrō was standing in the large open office of the Mizukage. ANBU had apprehended him quickly after getting near the village, after explaining himself, he was brought here to wait. The Mizukage had yet to arrive, and two ANBU was watching over him like hawks.

When he saw a young child enter the room he took the courage to him.

"Excuse me, but have you seen the Mizukage, I've been waiting forever now," Chōjūrō muttered.

"I'm the Mizukage, and you are?" Yagura said and signalled to the ANBU that they should leave them completely alone.

"I'm sorry, I'm Chōjūrō, Mizukage-sama," he bowed down in front of him and tears falling down his chin. It didn't make him less nervous that he had messed up already now.

"I'm glad to see you Chōjūrō-kun," the Mizukage smiled, though it was hard to read the expression. It was a mix of happiness and something a more sinister, if only slightly. "How good are you at keeping secrets?"

"Ehh, what do you mean Mizukage-sama?" Chōjūrō stuttered.

"Call me Yagura, please. I need your help, our village is in grave danger. You can't know the details, but simply put, we're going to be teammates. But do not disclose who I am. I need people to think I'm a Genin, not many know who I am, and keeping it that way makes it much easier to act as needed. A genin can walk much more freely around than a Kage, and your last teammate cannot under any circumstance know who I am? Do you think you can do that?"

He had overheard Mei talking about Yagura going mad, was this it? But no, he had no other choice than play along with his crazy ideas.

"I can do it, I won't disappoint you," or rather, he wouldn't disappoint Mei and he didn't want Yagura to kill him.

"Good, you're free to do as you want until I need you. See this as a chance to prove your loyalty."

-x-

Sarutobi was held up with his usual paperwork as a Chuunin brought in a big wooden crate into his office.

"What is that?" he asked the ninja.

"I don't know, it says it's a dog on the package and apparently it is from the Mist, but it has been quite silent, let's hope it's not dead. I didn't know you liked dogs Hokage-sama."

"Thank you, you can leave now," the Hokage answered.

As the ANBU left, Sarutobi picked a kunai from his pouch and pried the crate open. Looking down at the miserable shape of Kakashi, tied up and gagged by his own mask. "Did you have a nice trip?" Sarutobi asked.

Kakashi couldn't do anything that mumbled something inaudible.

"Oh, I'm sorry, let me help you with that."

When Kakashi got his mouth free, he finally was able to talk. "It's not funny,"

"What did you do to make them send you back in that state?" Sarutobi said and looked down at Kakashi.

"I did what I had to do," Kakashi answered.

"Whatever you did clearly didn't work. I was about to get someone to chisel your name into the stone, what did you do?"

"I found Naruto, but he lost control while I was talking to him," Kakashi answered.

"I'm sure there are more to it?" he asked.

"I and Yagura had a little spar," Kakashi answered.

"Are you out of your mind?" Sarutobi yelled at him, "Do you know what consequences that could have for the village? I can't let it be known that my ninja has attacked a Kage like that. Our diplomatic stance is already weak, and you go around ruining it like that. And what made you think you'd even win, Yagura didn't charm his way to Kage, even I would think twice about facing him in a battle, and it would be a death wish to do it in the Hidden Mist."

"I felt I owed Minato-Sensei and Naruto it," Kakashi answered back.

"Give me one good reason to not ship you back to Yagura and let him finish his work? This is on the border to treason."

"You need me to teach Sasuke and to steer him on the right path, we're quite similar I feel."

"You better take your job seriously then, and if you think about visiting Mist again, I'll send your head on a silver plate to the Mizukage. You're dismissed, and don't show yourself here again before passing your team."

It was time to arrange another meeting with his old friend. At first, he needed someone to check on Sasuke, but now it seems like he needs eyes on both of them. Hopefully one of his agents could act like a human being.

-x-

Sakura was waiting patiently on her new Sensei and tried to steal a look at Sasuke when he wasn't paying attention. She'd hoped he was more open to her now that they were teammates, but so far no luck, she just had to give him some time.

"You three, meet me on the roof," a white-haired man said from the doorway before he disappeared.

"Three?" She said to herself, looking behind her, she saw a creepy pale as chalk boy smiling at her.

Sasuke was already on his way out.

"Wait for me," she called out and ran after him.

-x-

"Hmm," Kakashi mumbled and looked at his three students after hearing them introduce themselves.

"Anything wrong," Sakura asked.

"No, I was just thinking, you three are quite, I'm not sure what to say, special?" Kakashi mumbled. "But you're not proper Genin yet, I'll test you again properly tomorrow."

"Another test?" Sasuke grumbled. "What was the point of the graduation test then?"

"Ah, that was just to weed out the weakest and save us Jounin some time, I'll recommend that you don't eat breakfast tomorrow. It's for your own good. Let's meet again at training ground 7 at sunrise". Kakashi jumped down from the roof and left them to their own devices.

He sighed, he didn't know exactly who this Sai was, apart from the fact that it was not his real name, who sent him. and that it was not good news. He knew he was being watched, and even if he couldn't detect anything, he knew that Sai was following him. He picked up his speed to test the boy, if he could keep up and still not be detected, he might be a quite valuable addition to the team once Danzo's brainwashing has lost its effect.

-x-

This was the weirdest task Mangetsu ever had received, he trusted Yagura, but now it seemed like the man had gone a bit insane, sure he was glad Yagura had taken a stop to finally improve the village, but it wasn't good if Yagura lost it.

But now he was here, preparing to take on his first Genin team, apart from the fact that one of them was Konoha's old Jinchuuriki, other was a rebel spy and the last one was the Mizukage himself.

He was mostly supposed to keep the act up for the Jinchuuriki and give the boy a friendly view of the village, and it wouldn't be a hard task, as the boy had no idea how a Jounin-Sensei would actually act. What he should be worried about was Yagura punishing him for messing up, the younger ninja seemed to have grown a much softer side recently. But the stress caused by failure could send Yagura over the edge, and that would only mean bad things for the village. Or even worse, the Konoha Jinchuuriki would lose control. There were all sorts of bad ideas involved here, but he knew better than challenging the Mizukage on this. Despite him being an adult, he could be just as stubborn as his appearance would suggest.


	4. 3 out of 7 Swordsmen

Team 7 was waiting for their tardy Sensei as usual. But there was less of a complaint this time, they had finally gotten a C-ranked mission and they were about to depart.

It was a simple mission of escorting a drunkard bridge builder, not the kind of mission where you'd see any kind of real action. But it was an opportunity to see the world and prove that they could do more than just chase cats and paint fences.

For Sakura, this also meant learning how to pack for a mission as she had initially brought too much. But on the light side, it meant getting help from Sasuke.

Sure he had told her: "If you don't repack, you'll slow us all down."

She knew that he actually cared about her.

But by Sasuke's standards of essential, that meant just one book and far from as many clothes as she wished for. And trying to cheese it by bringing one of her largest books didn't work. She'd blame him if she got bored on the trip.

And even with that delay, there was still plenty of downtime for them while waiting, which Sasuke spent on practising his aim and Sakura practised her observation skills by watching him throw countless kunai.

After a half an hour, Sasuke got bored and turned to Sakura. "Why don't you give it a shot, you won't be any use if you don't practise."

Sakura was a bit stunned, Sasuke wanted to see her throw. But she was a bit afraid to make a fool out of herself. Though she'd be looking like even more of a fool if she said no, so she grabbed a kunai from her own pouch and stepped into position.

She looked at the target, aimed and threw the kunai at it.

Right in the middle.

Luck, she thought to herself. She prepared another one and repeated the process.

And by repeating the process, she hit the bullseye again.

Both of them was a bit surprised. They both knew she tended to be a bit rubbish at it. She could impossibly have learnt that much by admiring Sasuke, so it must have been a fluke.

But as she was about to throw another one, Kakashi, Sai, and the bridge builder had turned up.

It was time to go.

-x-

It wasn't just Team 7 that was excited. Team Mangetsu had gotten something even better than a C-rank, an A-rank.

Naruto had a hard time sleeping the night before, he was finally able to go on an adventure with his new best friend. The Mizukage really must have believed in them for giving them an A-rank this soon. Sure, he knew his friend was strong, but still.

Sasuke wouldn't be given this kind of chance he bet.

The wind was blowing through his hair as he stood in front of the boat as the vessel raced through the waves. Yagura and Mangetsu were playing cards while Chōjūrō was by the back of the boat keeping watch.

It was more a training exercise, they didn't expect anything to happen before arriving in the Wave Country. And he didn't say no to the opportunity to get a better watch of the world. Even if much of the trip would probably be just watching waves travelling along the water.

But there still was a chance that some minor issues could arise, from what Naruto had heard, Wave was controlled by a rich shipping magnate who might not appreciate their diplomatic mission. The people there were struggling, so they had with them fish as aid and a token of goodwill. He would have suggested providing them with ramen too, but it was already too late at that moment.

-x-

Naruto had no idea that it was a risky move from Yagura. As the boy was unaware of the dire situation in his new home country. But it was something that kept the innocent looking Mizukage's head occupied. Getting access to a port on the mainland, along with improved fishing opportunities for both countries was vital. While they could easily take it over by force, it wouldn't look great with their neighbours. So diplomacy it was.

Which was why Yagura would rather focus his mind on a mindless card-game. All the official documents had already been written back home. Mangetsu would take care of the talking as it helped to have someone who looked like an adult discuss with the Wave Daimyo.

Zabuza, however, was a problem he needed to solve himself. He had prepared a personal letter for the man. But if needed, he had no issues with defeating the former swordsman. That wasn't an outcome he could be happy with. For some reason, he had hoped for Naruto somehow saving the day as he himself was kneedeep in blood.

The boy adored him.

No one else did.

If Zabuza could see that, maybe he could see that things had changed. He was no longer the Kage he once tried to assassinate.

But back to the card game, he was winning too much to be not suspicious.

"Are you losing on purpose, are you afraid of me?" Yagura asked his pretend Jounin-sensei.

The other man flashed his shark teeth in a smile.

"You got me, I might have let you win a few times, but it's not because I fear you'll punish me for winning. I take a look at you, I see the bags under your eyes, you're under a lot of stress. I'm doing it to cheer you up, if everything else goes badly on this mission, at least you're not failing at this," Mangetsu said.

Yagura sighted. Would he be treated like this if he didn't look like a young boy?

But he couldn't deny he appreciated the thought. It did kind of make him feel better. But it didn't feel exactly right.

"Thanks," Yagura said. "I think I'll nap for a bit."

-x-

For Team 7, things were a bit tense at the moment. It turned out that the bridge builder had lied to them. Two bound up missing-nin had provided more enough proof at the old man's story didn't hold water.

So now they had a decision to make.

There were several thoughts in Kakashi's head.

On one hand, the man had lied to them and put his team in danger.

On the other hand, his worries were real and the man was pushed into desperation. Thw Wave couldn't afford a higher ranked mission.

But he should perhaps believe in his team some more.

Sasuke was a top student and could make good of a challenge.

Sai was a Danzo spy and should be able to hold his own with no issue.

Sakura was the issue. She had a lot to work on as a ninja, and if he could ensure her safety, it would be a great learning experience for her.

Kakashi sighed, he would probably regret it. Both Sasuke and Sakura wanted to continue, while Sai said they couldn't reward Tazuna for lying. So it was up to him to decide.

"We're continuing on. Sai, people may have real reasons to lie, and sometimes we need to let it slide," Kakashi told the team. "But from now on, I want you to be extra careful. Everyone got it?"

The three nodded.

"All right, here is the plan. Sakura, stay close to Tazuna at all times and be ready with a kunai to deflect any attack. Sasuke and Sai, protect them from all sides. If Sakura has to step in, you've not done your job properly. I will go after the enemy. So unless I say otherwise, keep to protecting your target. Understood?" Kakashi asked them.

"Hai," all three of them answered.

"And you," he pointed to the bridge builder. "You're going to be more respectful towards my team or I'll cut off your tongue, you won't need that for finishing the bridge."

The man did not dare say anything, only shut his mouth safely.

-x-

As Yagura started to wake up from his nap, he noticed someone lying behind him. As he turned his head he noticed the yellow mop of hair from his new friend.

It stunned him for a moment and he started to observe the features of the other boys face. Even if he was sleeping, he could still notice that Naruto was without worry. That he'd lied down next to his friends as extra comfort as if that was a natural thing to do.

People who previously knew him would never do that, everyone feared him to a certain degree. Mangetsu might pretend not to, but he knew that it was just a facade. He could feel that the man had some doubts about him, and not trust him to not become a threat later on..

And the same could be said for Chōjūrō. Not only was he aware of his reputation, but he was also a spy and a spy for a faction that would have probably made him an even bigger of a villain. That boy had all the reason to be afraid.

Yet Naruto felt none of it at all. But rather it looked like he couldn't have slept safer next to who he perceived to be his best friend in the world.

Yagura wished he didn't have to trick the boy like that, but it was too late to turn back now.

-x-

Everything had gone bad, almost. They had been expected to be attacked again, but not by someone of Zabuza's calibre.

Though everyone survived, and Kakashi was thankful for that, but he couldn't avoid the sneaking suspicion that something was wrong. That Mist hunter-nin wasn't acting like a hunter-nin should have. Not to mention that it was all too convenient. You wouldn't just send one person after someone like Zabuza. Which meant there would be another fight in the coming days.

Which lead him to this, watching Sasuke trying to learn to walk up trees. Sakura had mastered it pretty fast and Sai already knew how to do it, obviously. So he had sent them to work on water walking while he was watching Sasuke fail, over and over again.

There seemed to be a lack of real drive in the boy, just mindless motions. His teammates had left him behind, and there was no one else to compete with. From going from the top of his class, Sasuke was now dead last on the team, at least in his own mind.

How much easier this would have been if Naruto was here instead of Sai. Then they could challenge each other to reach new heights, both literary and figurative.

"Sasuke, you should take a break, you won't make any progress when you're frustrated like this."

His student quickly pocketed his kunai, as if this was just the excuse he needed.

"People progress at different rates, Sakura has good control due to her low chakra reserves, and I'm sure you've already noticed that Sai is … weird."

"What happened to Naruto?" Sasuke asked while ignoring the lesson Kakashi was trying to teach him.

"It's complicated," Kakashi answered. "Is that's what upsetting you?"

"No," Sasuke answered back, "I just find it strange, I've not seen him since before the graduation. One day he was there, then he was gone. Is he dead?"

"No!" Kakashi called out, "What's all this about?"

"Something is being hidden from us, I just imagined how it would be if he was on the team here instead of Sai. He'd try to climb the tree out of stubbornness. We weren't friends, but I could connect to him. He always challenged me, even if it was impossible. Sakura doesn't do that, Sai doesn't do that," Sasuke sighed in frustration. "My… the man is way too strong for me right now. Challenging him in anything I do is hopeless."

"You miss having a rival?"

Sasuke reluctantly nodded. "It might be pathetic to see the dead last as a rival, but he always put in effort into trying to overdo me, even if he tended to lack in results. "

"I've been trying to get him back, but… I've not exactly had luck in it, but I'm working on it. That's all I can say right now."

"You can't even tell me where he is?" Sasuke asked.

Kakashi shook his head.

"You don't need to do this exercise right now if you don't want to, it's not like we'll be facing any enemy trees while we're here. It can wait until another time."

-x-

Naruto was bored. This boat trip took forever, and not in the way ramen took forever to cook, it had been days. Nothing had happened, it should be a good thing, but he had expected more exciting stuff on a mission like this.

That didn't mean he didn't enjoy playing cards with Chōjūrō. His teammate was friendly and had an awesome sword. Though it looked a bit too big and heavy for him.

Too bad he lost most of the times. But that just meant he had to try harder next time, never give up. Sasuke wouldn't have given up, so neither would he. Though Sasuke wouldn't have lost…

He wondered if he'd see him again.

Of course, he would, they'll meet in the chuunin exam. He had an awesome team, there was no way the Mizukage would hold them back. And with Sasuke's strength, he'd, without doubt, be there too.

"We're there soon, I need you all to be on guard now," Mangetsu-Sensei said.

Finally, in not so long he could put his feet on solid ground again.

-x-

"I have a bad feeling for today," Kakashi told his team. "Zabuza is overdue in striking again. Sai, I want you to protect the house, if they can't get Tazuna, they might go after his family. Sasuke, you'll go after his fake hunter-nin ally and Sakura, stay close to Tazuna."

-x-

While Mangetsu and Yagura were out in a meeting with the local daimyo. It was up to Naruto and Chōjūrō to stay out of trouble.

So that meant waiting outside, and not go around exploring.

-x-

Zabuza regretted everything, it was a stupid decision but desperation pushed him into a corner. He had underestimated his opponent, the infamous copycat. And Haku was struggling with his opponents. They might be a fresh genin, but they were a force to be reckoned with, and it didn't help the situation that Haku was reluctant to go all out against other children.

He hadn't gotten the rest needed, as Gato was impatient and pushed him to act sooner than he was prepared. And his opponent didn't lack effort either. They both had something to fight for.

Zabuza knew he needed to act before it was too late. So he lunged at his opponent with his sword.

That was a terrible mistake, he was becoming more and more sloppy, and now he got punished for it.

Kakashi had managed to hook a kunai inside into his sword and yanked it out of his hands.

An unarmed swordsman could very quickly turn into a dead swordsman. Especially since he had spent most of his chakra on Jutsu that had failed to give him any sort of advantage.

His opponent was preparing his signature attack, Raikiri, the chirping birds was the sound of death in his ears. And he was too exhausted to really move.

He closed his eyes for a final countdown to the end.

3

2

1

But the strike never came and the birds stopped chirping.

Did Haku stop it?

No.

"No!"

It couldn't be happening, he had to open his eyes and look.

And he was completely right. It couldn't be happening. Instead, something even more unbelievable had happened.

He could recognize that green uniform anywhere.

They said as death set in, the brain would be depleted for oxygen and start hallucinating.

But he'd assume it would at least be something believable.

That the 4th Mizukage, the brutal leader of the bloody mist, Yagura was what standing between him and death. No, that was impossible. He was a traitor. He had tried to kill that man, a man that did not handle traitors with any kind of mercy.

All he wanted to do now was close his eyes and let death take him, hoping Haku wouldn't join him anytime soon. He just wished he could have told the boy how much he meant to him before dying, but alas, it was too late.

-x-

Kakashi's eyes were wide, his attack had been stopped right in his tracks. A wooden staff was placed against his chest.

Yagura.

"As a missing-nin for Mist, he's our responsibility. The fight is over," the pretend genin said.

On the other flank a blue haired boy with a sword way to big for himself, and Naruto had stepped in between Sasuke, Sai and Zabuza's apprentice, along with another swordsman from Mist.

The fight was over, his team should, by all means, be safe, he could relax again. The nightmare had reached its end and no one had died.

-x-

Sasuke's eyes were wide. In front of him was no other than Naruto armed with a kunai to keep them at bay.

"Where have you been?" he asked his former classmate.

"Oh hi bastard, look I'm a genin now, I finally did it," Naruto said and pointed to his forehead protector. Four small waves, the same as Zabuza.

"Why did you leave?" Sasuke asked again.

"People don't like me back home, I was going to fail the exam. So when Yagura invited me, I took the chance to get away. Look at this," Naruto said and formed a water clone. "I manage to make a clone and become a genin."

He smiled proudly at him. Sasuke hadn't seen the other boy that happy, not in that way. Yes, he was excited about the pranks he pulled off, but never happiness separated from whatever kept him occupied at the moment.

"So you never missed Konoha?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto paused for a bit before answering. "Not really, I'm sorry. Not even Sakura. Things have changed."

Could Sasuke revive some of their rivalries?

"Do you know how to walk on trees?" Sasuke asked.

When Naruto shook his head, he knew there was a chance.

But all was not over…

Gato had gone tired of waiting for Zabuza to do his job and was turning up with a large group of henchmen. The man looked quite short among the group, but that was just an illusion.

"What do you guys want," Yagura yelled at them.

"More annoying children trying to play hero," Gato laughed along with the men behind him. "We were just going to take out the bridge builder and destroy the bridge. But first, we need to remind people of Wave that you don't get to oppose me just because you're a kid."

"Don't dare to touch my friend!" Naruto yelled out.

Yagura turned around and smiled at him, "Don't worry I can handle it." And started making a few hand signs.

A large wave of water hurled towards the enemy, some tried to run away, some stood steadfast against it, but either approach was pointless. Because as soon they got trapped in the Jutsu, blobs of water gathered around the victims and hurled them over the edge of the bridge. Till everyone was gone apart from Gato.

He had seen that the population had gathered with crossbows under the leadership of a small boy, or an adult looking like a small boy. He didn't know for sure.

So it was only right that he gave them a chance to take revenge on the man that had terrorized their land.

Some were approaching Gato for that exact purpose, while others were approaching him.

Before he could react properly, people had grabbed him and thrown him up in the air cheering. Praising their new hero.

He had just thrown a large group of people off a tall bridge, shouldn't that make him at least a bit intimidating?

-x-

Zabuza turned out to be wrong about his own death because here he was awake. His sword was standing by the wall and he was apparently in a bed. As he tried to raise up, he noticed that his limbs were tied to the bed.

It made a rattling noise, alerting anyone around about his actions.

"I see you're awake."

It was Mangetsu. One of his fellow swordsmen, at least in the past. "I have a letter I want you to read."

His right hand was untied, but he didn't feel strong enough to read right now.

"What's it about?" Zabuza asked, tired in his voice.

"It's a pardon. For both your attempt at assassinating the 4th Mizukage along with your other crimes as a missing-nin," Mangetsu.

"What about Haku?" Zabuza asked.

"He's alive and well. The same applies to him, no charges."

"There has to be a catch, right?" Zabuza wasn't exactly convinced.

"Yes…" Mangetsu said. "But not bad ones. First I need to ask you if you've committed any truly horrible crimes, like sold children into slavery, any acts of genocide or something in that area."

"I've not, my missions might have been far from honourable, like trying to take out the bridge builder and the team from Konoha, but I've never fallen as low as you might fear."

"Good, the sword of yours is Mist property, it is going back to the village. But we hope you'll rejoin the village and help to make it a better place, we're already making progress. Yagura has turned into a fine leader. He says he's been mind-controlled for most of his reign, till recently, or he might just have gone crazy. But no matter the reason, it's better now. Just look out the window, he's being approached as a hero."


	5. Hug that Cute Redhead

Sasuke was running up the trunk of the three alongside Naruto. He was finally getting a hang on it.

Nothing had changed really, he was doing everything the same as before. The thing that had changed was his drive. But as he was nearing the top of the tree, his grip slipped and his body fell.

Falling faster and faster until hitting the ground.

Sasuke bounced in his bed. The entire experience had felt so real. But he was alone again. Alone in his apartment back in Leaf, his rival had gone back to Mist.

But his mind dragged him back to wave. It was an exhausting trip and he really needed the rest. So he just had to close his eyes again and try to fall asleep again.

-x-

Next morning, he arrived at their normal meeting spot. And for once, Kakashi had arrived early.

"The Chuunin exam is near, so to prepare, I feel you should spar against each other. Sasuke and Sakura, you're first," he explained as he made a large circle in the training ground to mark an arena.

The two of them stepped in preparing for the fight. And while Kakashi counted down, a heavy mist gathered around them.

What was going on?

He saw something swinging towards him and he was forced to jump. Sakura was swinging a huge sword against him, where had she even gotten that from?

"Are you really an Uchiha?" Sakura asked him from the mist before attempting another swing at him.

"Where is your Sharingan?" She taunted him.

He tried flinging one of his signature fireballs at her, but nothing happened.

"You really are useless, all you're doing is holding your team back," she yelled at him.

"Stop it!" he cried out with his eyes closed.

But there was no one there. Only him in his bed. It was another dream. He needed fresh air. He didn't even bother getting properly dressed. His pyjama would do, no one would be out noticing him anyway so.

He slipped on his sandals and took to Konoha's nightly streets. Things weren't good at all. There was only one place to go in his mind, the memorial stone.

-x-

"Is everything okay?" Sasuke heard Kakashi's behind him.

"Would you believe me if I said yes?" Sasuke answered.

"No, I wouldn't. So what's bothering you?"

"Everything," he sighed. "I still haven't unlocked the Sharingan. I feel I'm holding the team back. Haku was toying with me, I didn't stand a chance. And Naruto's teammate managed to stop you from killing Zabuza and got rid of Gato's gang. I need to get stronger, but everyone just leaves me behind in the dust. No wonder my father saw me as a disappointment."

"Sasuke, look at me." Kakashi said, "You're not a failure. Naruto's teammate is not a fresh genin, he has a lot more experience than you think. Can you promise me to keep what I'm saying next a secret? You cannot tell anyone, not even any imaginary friends if you should have any."

Sasuke nodded.

"Naruto and Yagura are what's known as Jinchuuriki. When the Nine-tails attacked Konoha the 4th didn't kill the beast but sealed it inside Naruto. While Yagura has the Three-tails inside him. Drawing on those powers and only the very best can defeat them. So please, don't compare yourself to those. As you may know, the Chuunin exam is up soon, and more often than not, Uchiha awake their powers during the tense situations you'll encounter."

"I see," Sasuke replied. "But I'll still try to keep up with Naruto as long as I can. And you better be right about me getting the Sharingan during the exam."

"If you don't awaken it on your own, I'll give you my own, deal?"

"Deal."

"You can stay here as long as you want if you've trouble sleeping. I'll cancel tomorrow's meeting."

"I don't think that's necessary."

"It's not a suggestion."

-x-

Naruto was full of energy. He was back in Konoha and ready to show everyone that's he's a badass ninja. His team had been selected by the Mizukage to represent the village during the Chuunin exam. With his awesome team, it was a given. He'd gained some new tricks since wave and Chōjūrō was getting better with his sword. And Yagura didn't need any new tricks to kick ass.

But there was one thing he needed to do before anything else. Visit the old man Teuchi for some ramen.

"Naruto, is that you?" Ayame called out as he sat down at the stand. "Where have you been, have you been cheating on us with another ramen stand?"

Naruto chuckled, "I visited my friend in Mist, and I decided to become a ninja there since I didn't have any friends back here in Konoha."

"I'm happy for you Naruto. Here's a free bowl of Miso Ramen, on the house," she handed her a steaming bowl of deliciousness and Naruto began to eat as he had never tasted food before.

It didn't take many seconds before the bowl was empty.

"Sorry, I've to go find Sasuke and Sakura," Naruto said.

"That's them right?" Ayame asked pointing towards a group of people, including a pink haired girl.

"Yep, thanks for the food," Naruto said and ran towards the group.

"You know that kid is the Hokage's grandson right?" Sasuke asked a black-clad genin from Suna.

"And we're the Kazakage's children. He should learn to show some respect," he replied.

"Just let him go," a blond girl beside him said.

Naruto decided to not read the situation and just barge in.

"Hi, you're here for the Chuunin exam too right?" He asked the group from Suna. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto."

"That's the plan if my idiot brother stops trying to get us kicked out of the village. I'm Temari and that's Kankuro," she said.

"Gaara," a voice coming from a redhead on a tree branch behind them, with a large ceramic gourd on his back.

"Nice to meet you," Naruto said with a huge grin on his face.

"We need to go," Temari said and dragged Kankuro by his suit away from them.

"Kakashi is entering you guys in the exam right?" Naruto asked the group of Konoha-nin.

"Yes, and he promised me that I would gain the Sharingan, one way or another during the exam. So you better watch out," Sasuke answered.

"What other stuff have he taught you since wave?"

 _Since wave?_ Sasuke thought. Kakashi had shown them one thing since they graduated and that was tree-walking. A skill he only managed with the help of Naruto. Yes, he had gotten battle experience from wave but no new tricks up his sleeves. Their sensei really needed to teach them something new, and that fast.

"It's a secret, you'll just have to see when you fight me," Sasuke said with a smirk, "And you?"

"Secret," Naruto grinned back.

"We need to find Kakashi," Sasuke whispered in Sakura's ear.

"We need to go, see you later Naruto," Sakura said and left with Sasuke, leaving Naruto alone.

-x-

"You really should have asked earlier you know," Kakashi told his students.

"We wouldn't need to ask if you had been a better teacher, how do you expect us to win the exam with what we know now," Sasuke answered.

"I don't, there will be time if you reach round three however and I intend to use that to great advantage. But you're wrong about you being unprepared. Treewalking will become very useful, though saying any more would be spoiling it and could get you disqualified. And keeping calm in battle is more important than knowing a thousand Jutsu," Kakashi reasoned.

"While you might have a point, the later were more Zabuza's work. Maybe we should find him, along with Haku, us three would create a perfect genin team. How does Zabuza-sensei sound to you Sakura?" Sasuke suggested to his teammate.

"I like it, sure he was terrified and all that, but that just means that no one would want to mess with us."

"Very funny. But there is something we can do in a short amount of time. Crafting and detection of traps. And with the added pay from the A-rank mission, I can supply you with some explosive tags. If you show you can handle them properly that is."

"So tree-walking and trap marking, are you telling us that we're going to be staying in the forest of death during the exam?" Sakura asked.

"Of course I'm not telling you that, that would be cheating," Kakashi answered.

"Why not tell us all the answers we need too while you're at it?" Sasuke asked jokingly.

"Oh, you won't need them," Kakashi replied. "I need to gather some equipment, meet me at the training ground in an hour."

-x-

After a day of rest in Konoha, Naruto and his team were ready to take part in the first part of the exam. And they were currently waiting along with the other examinees.

Though looking around him, everyone looked so intimidating, especially those from Hidden Rain. He was glad for his team. Chōjūrō might have shark teeth, but Yagura was anything but intimidating and would for sure keep them safe.

He noticed some commotion in the corner of the room. A silver-haired Konoha-nin was showing off some cards. He was curious about what it was all about so he followed his teammate towards the boy.

"Gaara, from Suna… Hmm… Not much info on him. Several C-rank, one B-rank. All without a scratch. Impressive," the boy known as Kabuto said.

"B-rank, what's the big deal? We did an A-rank without a scratch," Naruto bragged.

"Can you look them up," Sasuke asked from the side. "Uzumaki Naruto and Yagura from the Hidden Mist, I don't know the name of their last teammate.

"Sure…" Kabuto said and started looking through his deck. Once more after his first search failed. "Sorry, I've nothing on them, though I do notice that Naruto is a former Academy student here in Konoha."

"You're not so good of a spy after all," Yagura taunted, knowing perfectly well why Kabuto couldn't have gathered the necessary information.

"I'm not a spy, information gathering like this is a completely legitimate hobby. If you were chuunin material, you might have understood," Kabuto laughed back.

It wasn't time for much more banter as Ibiki and his army of Chuunin examiners had arrived the scene. Everyone was handed out a number with their seat number, ensuring that teams couldn't just sit together and give each other the answers.

They were given an hour to complete the test and it contained ten questions and told that if they got caught cheated they'd be docked in points. Five strikes and they were out.

Naruto was not happy, written tests were his weak side and these questions made no sense. How where they supposed to know these kinds of things? He wondered how his teammates were doing, but they were sitting behind him, and if he turned around they might be thinking that he was cheating.

There must be something he could answer. What's the best ramen flavour for instance. But as he turned the pages, it only got worse. He could at least start on the first question.

" _Question 1: Name all the known hidden villages"_

 _Leaf, Sand, Mist, Rain._ Then he had to guess. _Stone, Lightning, Ice…_

" _Question 2: What was the cause for each of the three great ninja wars?"_

Who knows stuff like this… Naruto sighed and just rest his head on his desk. And this was the easy portion of the test, the free points you'd get before stuff got real. He'd fail and his friends wouldn't become chuunin, all because for him. Or if he cheated, he'd probably disappoint Yagura by not taking it seriously and put Mist in a bad light.

But he couldn't do anything, just wait till it was all over.

When 50 minutes had gone by, Ibiki was ready for an important message.

"Now, there is one last question and if you don't want to take it, raise your and you may leave and take your team with you. If you choose to stay and you fail, you and your team will no longer be able to become Chuunin."

What should he do, Naruto was in turmoil. If he stayed and failed. Yagura wouldn't become a Chuunin and then he couldn't become Mizukage. If he left, he'd disappoint his friends, but wouldn't destroy their chances in the future.

There was only one thing he could do, and it wasn't easy. He slowly raised his hand to signalize he wanted to give up. Other teams around him had already left, so he wouldn't be the first.

"Hold it"

Yagura yelled out from behind him.

"How stupid do you think we are? The Mizukage would never agree to this. And even if it was true, we would continue on and just jump straight to Jounin if we couldn't become Chuunin."

Naruto put his hand down in an instant. His friend was right if he couldn't become Chuunin he just had to move up another step. They were a badass team that wouldn't be held down for long.

"I guess your team is staying. Do the rest of you believe him? You know, it could be a ploy to make you fail." Ibiki said.

"Why would he try to make us fail like that?" Some random Genin asked from the corner.

"If your village doesn't have enough competent ninja, that means more business to Mist," he answered.

The girl did raise her hand, she was convinced and took with her team with her. But that was the last surrender.

After a painful minute. Ibiki brought good news.

"You all pass. The tenth question was all about your willingness to take a risk even if the information you had on hand was incomplete and that you were willing to sacrifice personal prestige for the mission."

"What about the first 9 questions?" some genin asked.

"It was to test you in information gathering. Which was why we encouraged you to cheat. Normally you'd only get one chance, but then none of you would take the risk," Ibiki explained.

"And what if we didn't cheat?" Sakura asked.

"If you already had the information, then mission accomplished. And if knew you couldn't get away with it, then in many cases it would be better to not try. There is a difference in taking a risk and throwing away your life. If you're doomed to fail, all you're doing is helping the enemy upping their security and securing their secrets.

"Passing this test doesn't mean you're ready to become Chuunin, but it shows that you're not completely useless and falls for simple mind-games. Calm your nerves down and be prepared for tomorrow, next part if much worse. And if you think I'm sadistic, then you've not yet meet Anko."

-x-

Team Mangetsu was at the small apartment they had rented for the trip and their sensei had prepared dinner for them.

"Am I a bad ninja since I didn't get that we were supposed to cheat?" Naruto asked the others around the table.

"No, being a loyal and honest ninja is a valuable quality. Though there are times where we're supposed to break the rules. Even if some edgy genin would claim that being a ninja is all about cheating and deceiving. Proper conduct is important if you want to become and stay a prosperous village. Trading short term victory for long term loss would corrupt a village," Yagura explained.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked curiously.

"If one promoted the most brutal ninja, those who would be willing to stab their fellow ninja in the back to get what they wanted, how would the village turn out?"

"Everyone would stab each other in the back?" Naruto answered by repeating the question.

"And what would that lead to?" Yagura prompted.

"The village would be at war with itself?" Naruto suggested.

"Exactly, and no one would trust you to hold your deals," Yagura answered. "Though, one also need to make sure to not be let walked over and be taken advantage of. Being a leader is a difficult balancing act. We'll be tested in ways we don't realize tomorrow. Becoming Chuunin is the first step to becoming a leader and we need to act right even we're not told how to act," Yagura told him.

Truth be told, was he even the fault of what had happened to his village? Sure, he wasn't in control of himself, but was the village already in decline when he picked up the hat all those years ago? People who had to kill their classmates to graduate wouldn't come away from it without issues, and there was no one from the younger generations in power back home.

Was he messed up in the head without knowing it himself?

-x-

Team 7 had used their time well, prepared with explosive tags, ninja wire and different other equipment needed to create traps, and what they didn't have on them they could gather in the forest.

They were far from pros at the moment, but a lighting course from Kakashi was better than nothing. And Sai seemed to catch everything quickly. So now they could sleep safely at night, even if they mostly wanted to be done with the exam before the need for sleep caught them. But as a rookie team, that wasn't going to happen. Even if they gathered the requisite scrolls, running towards the tower was just asking for them to be stolen.

"I need you all to sign a waiver before you start," Anko called out and then you'll get your scroll. If you want to quit, now is your chance.

"What's that for?" Sasuke heard Yagura ask their examiner.

"In case something happens to you. You get injured or killed by another team or the forest itself, we're not liable for anything," Anko explained.

"You're making genin kill each other to get a promotion?" Yagura asked a bit more softly, as he was visibly shaking.

Naruto was quick to follow up with giving his teammate a comforting hug.

"We're not making anyone kill anyone, but if it were to happen we're not blaming anyone. If you're this afraid kid, just leave and come back when you're a couple of years older."

A combination of hugs, but mostly rude comments seemed to wake him up again. No one insults his age.

"I'm not afraid, I'm going to beat this exam without hurting anyone!" Yagura yelled out. "Why don't you change your name to _Bloody Leaf_ while you're at it?"

Anko just ignored him and moved on.

-x-

Team Mangetsu had reached their gate, equipped with one of the many _Earth Scrolls_ and was now inside the infamous forest of death.

"What was that about with Anko?" Naruto asked Yagura.

" _Bloody Mist_ is an old nickname of our village. We used to require academy student to kill one of their classmates in a similar kind of exam, letting the weak and soft die, and the strong and merciless live. It wasn't til Zabuza graduated it ended," Yagura said.

"What happened?" Naruto asked.

"He killed his entire class, leaving only him to graduate. The village was forced to end the practise as it was too costly. Which is how he got the nickname _Demon of the Mist_. But really, he's partly a hero. It has been well over a decade since that day. That's lots of classes who didn't have to suffer through the same experience and overall saved more lives than what he took at the days of his graduation," Yagura explained.

Naruto thought for a moment before asking his next question, "So that's why you were shaking outside? Do you know someone who had to partake in that?"

Yagura stiffens up for a bit before answering, "I don't want to talk about it, maybe one day, but not today."

He couldn't exactly tell his friend that he himself had to kill one of his classmates.

"We need to put up defences. Help me create a large cloud of mist Naruto, don't hold back. If we cover the entire forest, no one can sense where it comes from," Yagura said before turning to Chōjūrō "You can sense our chakra right? Keep close and warn us if we drift apart. "

-x-

"Do you sense that," Sakura asked her teammates as it began to be harder to see around them.

"Mist," Sai stated and looked at Sasuke's frozen body. "Anything wrong dickless?"

"Not now, Sai" Sakura grunted at her creepy teammate. "Sasuke, try to focus, we can do this. Defeat them and take their scroll, then we can run to the tower and get out of here."

It had gone all well in Wave. It was Sakura that had frozen up and could act. Why was it so hard now? The sensation of a huge ass sword swinging at him swept him.

What was different now?

There was no Kakashi to bail them out, there was no sensation that everything was bound to go well. It was real and they were on their own.

He needed to steel himself. He didn't have any reason to be afraid of their team. They were strong but not murderous monsters. Naruto he knew, his blue-haired friend looked harmless and his sword didn't wake as much terror in him. And the idea that genin would be allowed to kill each other made the last one shake.

But yet, his brain had made one big association to the mist.

Death

They were all keeping their eyes and ears open. Standing still to not draw attention to their position and making sure they didn't miss any sound.

But after what felt like minutes and probably was minutes too. Nothing happened. Not even a tiny rodent ran nearby.

"We should move on," Sai suggested and pulled out one of his scrolls he used for his drawings "The mist is everywhere, they're not targeting us. Let's the mist to our advantage."

Sai started drawing a bird, and after a few moments, he had it ready and could bring it to life and jumped on the back, signalizing to the others to do the same.

"Why didn't you do this before?" Sakura asked him as she climbed up on the bird.

"Without the mist, we'd be seen flying over the trees and could be shoot down, now we have the perfect cover."

As soon as Sasuke got a steady grip, Sai took to the air and started to fly over the canopy. And they were right, the mist was just as thick in the air as back on the ground and there wasn't possible to see any discerning landmarks in any direction. So they had to fly low, not only to catch any easy prey to get a scroll from but if they accidentally flew out of the area, they'd sure be disqualified.

Sasuke did start to feel a bit better now that they were in a much better position. It was unlikely that any other genin team was doing something similar to them. Creating birds wasn't exactly a common skill.

-x-

Naruto, Yagura and Chōjūrō were facing their first enemy. One of the many nameless Rain teams who seemed to have found a way to partially counter the mist.

"Just give us your scrolls and we can move on," Yagura yelled to his enemy.

"You seems to be one of the weaker teams here, taking yours will just be some fun warm up in case we meet some real ninja. You're the guy that began shaking and pissing your pants earlier after all," one of the enemy Genin taunted.

"Let's knock them out," Yagura gestured to his team.

They had planned for this and Naruto and Yagura starting sending multiple waves of water dragons against their attackers while Chōjūrō was being ready to counter anyone charging at them.

The attack didn't do much, only created some large puddles around the enemy.

"You know what our village is known for right? Rain. You're not the only water-based village. Someone must have wanted you guys dead for them to send you here," more taunts hurled at them from the Rain-nin.

A quick nod from Yagura was all the signalling Naruto needed. One of the many advantages of water Jutsu was how versatile they were as soon as you had a body of water to work with. And that included the water clone.

Without warning, multiple clones of Naruto and Yagura formed from the puddles and appeared around the other team. Punching and kicking them, while Chōjūrō was running at them at full speed to take advantage of the distraction.

It was a short encounter that ended with a smack to the head with a heavy sword.

Chōjūrō then went onto checking their bodies for anything useful.

"Looks like they just had another earth scroll," he said and threw it to Yagura. "And some bagged food on them, should we take it?"

"No!" Yagura answered with no hesitation. "They may have poisoned it in order to trap any attackers, and if it isn't poisoned, we don't want to starve them when they wake up again. If we just find the right scroll, we can get out of here before we get really hungry anyway."

-x-

Kakashi was barging into the Hokage's office.

"When did you plan on telling me that Yagura was entering the exam?" He yelled at Hiruzen.

"Is this how you great your Hokage? Besides, when were you going to tell me that he took over Wave while on your mission there? I read your report, and it said nothing about that or the ' _Great Yagura Bridge'_ named in his honour," the Hokage inquired.

"I might have forgotten something, I apologize, but that doesn't explain why you let that madman play around with our genin," Kakashi argued.

"It has everything with you Kakashi, if it wasn't for the mess you created on your trip there, he wouldn't have any leverage over us. And it's not like having him here isn't advantageous for us. Having Naruto visit Konaha again might turn him around," The Hokage explained before pointing to his crystal ball and asked. "Do you know what this is?"

Kakashi gave a silent nod.

"I'm keeping watch over him, and he's behaving, barely using any force to defeat his first opponent. He's showing chuunin like behaviour, and if he gets to the last round, I'll be sure to recommend him for promotion," he said as he laughed.

"And him changing the weather in the forest just make it a lot easier for the jounin and ANBU to stay hidden while they are keeping watch over the genin. Making sure none of them are stupid enough to kill each other for the sake of a promotion. We've already had to disqualify several teams. What are they thinking, that attempting to kill our genin will gain them any favours? If we actually let genin kill each other we would all be at war due to ninja seeking revenge for their fallen."

-x-

Team 7 had no luck trying to find anyone. Turns out that flying over everyone else drastically reduced the chance for any encounters. But finally they found someone, or rather someone found them. Their flying ink bird let out a cry before it poofed and left them falling to the ground.

The ground gave them a somewhat soft landing, but it was still hard enough to leave them unable to move for the moment.

"Who of you have the scroll?" The girl on the team asked.

"I've it, it's a heaven's scroll," Sasuke answered.

"Dang it," she cursed. "Since we're all from Konoha, let me introduce you to my team. I'm Tenten and that's Hyuuga Neji and Lee," she said as she was pointing to the respective ninja. They were close enough to see through the mist.

"I'm Uchiha Sasuke"

"Haruno Sakura"

"Sai"

Each of them replied back.

"Oh, you're the last Uchiha, do you have the Sharingan yet?" Tenten asked.

"No, I don't. It would be useful here," Sasuke replied.

"So what's do you say to us teaming up? Neji can easily navigate through the forest with his eyes. Though the first earth scroll goes to us, what do you say?" she suggested.

"I don't think we have any choice, it's probably going to stay like this for a while," Sasuke answered.

"You know what's causing it?" Lee asked.

"It's the Mist team, and they seemingly have a lot of chakra to waste," Sasuke answered.

"So, if we can find them, we can tell them to turn it off?" Lee asked back.

"No," Neji interrupted. "I've seen their chakra, more than anyone else here by a wide margin, even that creepy grass-nin wouldn't match them. We shouldn't mess with them. I can't guarantee to be able to block their chakra path before getting defeated myself, and you're of no use as long as you can see."

"You're right. Kakashi told me that something is up with Naruto's friend. I'm not allowed to go into details. But I have a nagging feeling he could defeat all six of us alone if he wanted to. He stopped Kakashi from killing a missing-nin in Wave. Kakashi graduated quite early, same with… ," Sasuke was about to mention that man, but he stopped himself. "If he has been a genin since he was seven or eight, he'd have many years of experience by now and should really be a Chuunin already. And Naruto claimed they had completed an A-rank. It may have been involving wave or it could be something else. And lastly, him being shaken up by Anko's threats isn't a sign of inexperience, but rather previous experience in the manner. I'd guess some of his former teammates died which is why Naruto got into his team."

"So then we agree on avoiding them?" Tenten suggested, "If he's overprotective of his team, he might not take any chances."

"I think so, even if Naruto is friendly with me, this is a competition and we're from different villages. It's a tense situation and we're enemies here."

-x-

The smell was horrible, Temari thought to herself. And it was just a question of time before someone would stumble upon them.

Right as he said that, the silhouettes of another genin team appeared in the mist. And suddenly the mist started to clear around them, making the clearing much more visible.

Their headband was clear as day, Hidden Mist.

The one on the middle, purple hair and a scar down his left eye looked around at the corpses lying around before he took a step forward and looked at them.

"Hi, I'm Yagura, who are you?" He greeted with an arm stretched out.

"Stay away from us," Temari yelled at them.

"Why?" Yagura asked and cocked his head.

How stupid was he?

"My brother will kill you," she tried to explain.

"Him?" Yagura pointed to Kankuro.

"No, not him," she growled back at him and subtly nodded towards Gaara, to make it even more obvious, while trying to not piss him off.

"Ah, Naruto," he said, pointing to one of his teammates. "I didn't know he was your brother, he never told me that he had a sister in Suna. I guess I can see it now, you both have blond hair. But I don't think he's going to kill.." Yagura said and paused for a second. "Oh, you mean the cute redhead? He looks quite harmless, I just want to hug him. Besides, what makes you think you have a chance against us?"

Great, she found a guy who was even crazier than Gaara. Using the words, cute, harmless and hug alongside her brother was the words of a madman.

What could she say to him to make him leave? She did not enjoy seeing the blood fo her enemies flow. Yagura might be crazy and annoying, but that didn't warrant a death sentence.

What went through that monster's head now. Normally, she'd assume he'd attack right now, but he hesitated. Though normally people would be afraid of Gaara, not borderline flirting with him.

She could see that the boy whispered something to his teammates, then a bit back and forth arguing before they pulled back at several meters.

He then turned towards Gaara again and yelled, "Attack me!"

Gaara didn't make a move, was Gaara afraid of the boy?

"Attack me or I kill you!" Yagura yelled again.

Temari and Kankuro did the only thing sensible and steered away from them. The boy clearly wanted to die, and she had tried to stop him several times.

Gaara's sand hurled towards the boy and Yagura slammed his hand towards the sand. From the point of contact, large corals started to grow and were spreading towards Gaara. Making the sand unusable in the process.

Gaara pulled as much sand he could away from the spreading corals and tried hitting his enemy again, but Yagura was too mobile for that and the process repeated.

She could see her brother getting agitated. Gaara was a one trick pony, and that tricked tended to work against everyone, apart from this one. She really hoped he wouldn't release the Shukaku inside here, that would ruin the entire plan.

"See, I told you that he was harmless," the mist boy called out to her. "No wonder he's so angry all the time when you're mean towards him."

Mean? He killed people, and he was not harmless. When she got the chance, she'll pummel that stupid head of his with her fan.

"This is starting to get boring," Yagura complained, "I thought we'd get some real challenges now that we're about to become Chuunin. Time to stop playing around and take this seriously."

What, he was holding back? Temari wanted to scream out to whatever god had forsaken her. You didn't play around while fighting Gaara, you didn't hold back. You performed 110% while trying to not die.

Out of nowhere a water clone feel from the sky and hit Gaara's shoulder, making corals spread around and imprisoning his body. Completely trapping him and making his body immobile. And there was no sand left to attack, as it was all trapped by the enemy's Jutsu.

Her brother was defeated by a little pipsqueak.

Gaara started to scream and shut his eyes. Though there was no sign of Shukaku escaping.

"̪̉I̧̪͑̈́ ͙͋l̩͞o̦̺͑̈s͖̀t̝̅…͓̂

͚̖͆͡"͈͉́̌M͚̌ǫ͕̑͗t͚̽͋͢ĥ͜ë̱́ṛ̅…̖̊

͎̥̑͞"̧͚͒͌M͇͆ȳ̢̧̐ ͖͊ẽ̤͓͑x̫͇̒͛i̥̳͒̌s̮͊t͇̿e̡̔ň̨c̬̤͒͘é̥͓͗

̧̳̃͊"̩̉Ȋ͢…̛̪̍ͅ

̠͎̏̚"̯̒͡ͅS̘͆t̙̿͑ͅa̘̕ÿ̼̻̽ ̬͔͗͝ȁ̱͓̓ẁ̧à̗y̟̏"̞͖̿́

Gaara started to shake and mumble like crazy. But it didn't stop Yagura from approaching and Temari had no idea what he was planning to do.

But hugging Gaara was the last thing she thought anyone would do in this situation.

"It's okay," Yagura said and the corals started to dissolve as he was embracing her brother. She saw his hands glow as Gaara's body stopped moving around.

"Did you kill him?" Temari asked. Her eyes were wide, her world was turned upside down.

"No, I forced Shukaku to leave for a moment," Yagura answered. "And I told you that I was going to hug your cute little brother, so why do you look so shocked?"

"Gaara, you lost. It's time to move on. There are more to life than this. You're allowed to lose a battle. You don't need to kill anyone anymore to prove your existence," he whispered in his ear before raising his voice again. "You're not alone, I and Naruto are Jinchuuriki's too. Let us be your friends. I invite the three of you out for lunch together when we get out, what you guys like to eat?"


End file.
